The portfolio committee on basic education has voiced its concerns about the lack of communication between the North West education department and its stakeholders.

The committee concluded its two-day oversight visit to assess schools' readiness in the province on Tuesday. 

Committee chairperson Bongiwe Mbinqo-Gigaba said lack of communication had become a source of new challenges in the province.

“Over the last two days, we visited 14 schools and we heard concerns regarding unplaced learners, scholar transport, delays in the delivery of learning material, the continuation of the 2019 placement of the department under administration in terms of section 100, unhealthy relations within school governing bodies and rotational teaching arising from the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Mbinqo-Gigaba.

She said the committee has noted that though the education authorities are trying their  best to correct the wrongs, there are challenges that still exist in the system and the committee has called on all the role players to continue their co-operation to alleviate them. 

“We have had reports from the intervention team that the provincial education department has been giving its full co-operation. We have heard that the intervention team found a willing management that is actively trying to find solutions. The team has indicated that authorities are willing to correct the wrongs that exist in the system currently and that should be commended.

“The committee has seen well-maintained schools as a result of good leadership and management. It was clear that those schools were performing well due to responsible and hands-on leadership. There were schools we visited where the situation was not too good. We noted tensions at some of the schools and we have called for the intervention of the provincial department to resolve those problems,” she said. 

The committee will visit Free State on oversight duty from Wednesday.