Department of Basic Education Q3 2025/26 Performance: with Minister

Video The Minister and Deputy Minister of Basic Education were in attendance as the Department of Basic Education (DBE) briefed the Committee on its third-quarter performance for the 2025/26 financial year. The Department reported an overall achievement rate of 75% for its quarterly performance indicators. Key highlights during the quarter included the administration of the 2025 National Senior Certificate examinations, the launch of the Funda Uphumelele National Survey to assess foundational reading outcomes, the ongoing mass registration of Early Childhood Development centres, and the implementation of a joint school safety protocol with the South African Police Service. Expenditure was 80% against its adjusted budget of R38.2 billion. However, the report highlighted significant operational deviations, most notably a severe under-expenditure of 40% on the Schools Backlogs Infrastructure Grant. The Committee expressed profound frustration at the persistent under-expenditure on infrastructure amidst a staggering national backlog and severe classroom overcrowding. Members demanded the implementation of stringent accountability measures to arrest the return of unspent funds to National Treasury and urged the Minister to elevate infrastructure to a standalone primary performance indicator. The discussion interrogated the systemic human resource failures resulting in critical shortages of subject-specific educators. The Committee strongly questioned the Department's failure to absorb unemployed, state-funded teaching graduates while institutional mismanagement concurrently forced existing educators to instruct subjects entirely outside of their academic specialisations. Members raised grave concerns on the escalating prevalence of gender-based violence, bullying, and criminal activities within schooling environments, questioning the tangible efficacy of the school safety protocol given recent reductions in provincial security personnel. Further rigorous inquiries were directed at the statistical methodology utilised to establish Mathematics and Science performance targets, the structural funding and infrastructure provisions for Early Childhood Development centres, and the specific pedagogical interventions required to rectify the weak literacy proficiencies identified by the national survey. The Committee rebuked the Department's purely quantitative reporting format, formally directing the inclusion of cumulative progress tracking and comprehensive qualitative narratives in all future reports to facilitate meticulous parliamentary oversight. Additionally, the Minister was strongly advised to implement a digital performance monitoring system to enhance executive oversight across all departmental programmes. The meeting concluded with the Chairperson issuing a directive to the Department to systematically issue formal responses to unresolved community grievances, proposing an upcoming technical session to track provincial resolutions via a consolidated oversight mechanism.