One SA Movement leader Mmusi Maimane will lead his party's protest outside the basic education department in Tshwane on Friday. 

Maimane and OSA members will hand over a memorandum to basic education minister Angie Motshekga.

The memorandum will detail OSA’s plan to “rescue” the department. 

“The education rescue plan contains 10 interventions that, if implemented immediately, would rescue SA’s education system and provide a stable foundation for progressive development in the coming years,” OSA said. 

“Our nation’s toughest challenges of unemployment, poverty and inequality cannot be addressed without dealing with the elephant in the room — the dismal state of our education system. We are failing to educate our young people and we need to do better.”

What is OSA proposing?

The movement is proposing 10 interventions that could provide a stable foundation for progressive development in the department. 

1. Drop the 30% pass mark for subjects
2. Introduce an independent education ombudsman     
3. Raise salaries for educators and curtail union power
4. Replace life orientation with mandatory skills subjects
5. Incentivise pupils during the academic year
6. Prioritise the primary phase of education
7. Implement tighter security at all schools 
8. Expand extended programmes for underperforming pupils
9. Reprioritise the budget for digital learning and infrastructure
10. Conduct a nationwide teacher skills audit

OSA called for a different conversation about the state of the country's education system. 

“Let us not be distracted by the department as we celebrate the individual accomplishments of our brilliant pupils who overcame a system that was stacked against them.

“Let us call for a new leadership team in our education department and begin to discuss ideas that can get this vital department back on track. 

“With an annual cost of more than R280bn, with over 24,000 schools under its supervision and with 13-million pupils in the system, we cannot afford anything but robust scrutiny of our education system. Our children deserve better and our nation cannot survive 27 more years of this miseducation.”