North West Education Department Hosts Lekgotla to Tackle Performance Gaps and Boost Accountability
Mahikeng, 07 October 2025 – The North West Department of Education kicked off a two-day Lekgotla today, aimed at reviewing and fixing performance shortfalls from the 2024/25 Annual Performance Plan. The gathering, held at the Seasons Wedding and Conference Centre in Mahikeng, brings together senior managers to set clear targets, strengthen internal skills, and align actions with the upcoming 2025/26 financial year. This comes after a precursor session by the Corporate Services Branch last month, which laid the groundwork for deeper discussions on financial management and other key areas. With education challenges like poor learner outcomes and infrastructure woes in the spotlight, the Lekgotla seeks to drive real changes for better service delivery across the province.
The event builds on past gatherings, such as the Provincial Mathematics Lekgotla held at the same venue in March 2025, showing a pattern of using these forums to address specific issues. It also ties into national efforts, like the Basic Education Sector Lekgotla earlier this year, which focused on strengthening foundational learning and aligning with South Africa’s G20 priorities. As the department grapples with ongoing problems, this meeting is a key step towards turning audit findings and performance reviews into actionable plans that benefit learners and schools.
MEC Viola Motsumi’s Call for Change
MEC for Education Viola Motsumi opened the Lekgotla with a strong message on improving service delivery and holding staff accountable. She stressed that the focus will be on practical steps to lift standards within the department.
“It is very wrong for departmental employees not to comply with the department’s standards,” Motsumi expressed.
She called for strict consequence management against those who fail to meet their duties, urging a shift away from relying on outside consultants when in-house skills are available. Motsumi highlighted the need to empower internal staff through training and better use of existing talent, which could cut costs and build long-term capacity.
Her remarks echo broader provincial goals, where the North West government has shown improvements in audit outcomes for 2023/24, moving towards cleaner financial practices across departments. Motsumi, who has been pushing for better oversight since taking office, wants to see a cultural change where managers take full ownership of their roles and raise professional levels.
Reviewing Shortfalls and Planning Interventions
Over the two days, senior managers are diving into the 2024/25 performance gaps, agreeing on targeted fixes with clear timelines to boost results in the next financial year. The Lekgotla aims to turn Auditor General findings into a solid action plan that improves support for learners and schools province-wide.
Discussions cover key areas like curriculum delivery, administration, and infrastructure management. Managers are looking at ways to prioritise skills building, redeploy staff where needed, and ensure public money is spent wisely. Motsumi urged: “Where we have most competent employees, we need to use them and develop them further. This will improve oversight, reduce costs, and ensure sustainability of programmes aimed at improving learner outcomes.”
This approach aligns with the department’s 2024/25 Annual Performance Plan, which focuses on recovery and reform after tough years. It also links to national plans, like the Department of Basic Education’s 2025/26 strategy, which tackles budget cuts and aims for better youth employment through education.
Background on Performance Challenges in North West Education
The North West faces deep-rooted issues that have held back progress, as detailed in the department’s 2020-2025 Strategic Plan. Learner outcomes are a big concern, with a 2.4% dropout rate affecting around 20,000 students from an enrolment of over 830,000. The province has higher rates of no schooling at 8.1% compared to the national 6%, and adult illiteracy stands at 30% – the highest in the country. Foundational skills in literacy and numeracy are weak, especially in rural areas like Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District, where over half of young adults have not finished upper secondary education.
Gender gaps add to the problem, with girls facing barriers like poor menstrual hygiene support, leading to higher absenteeism. Matric pass rates have improved slightly, from 81.5% in 2015 to 86.8% in 2019, with a further 1.83% gain noted in recent reports, but many schools still underperform, and bachelor passes remain low in key subjects like maths and science.
Infrastructure is another sore point, with overcrowding, unsafe buildings, and vandalism common. Only 21 out of 54 planned new schools were built in the last medium-term period, and issues like pit latrines persist despite targets to eradicate them by 2024. Budget allocations for 2020/21 to 2024/25 show R6.8 billion for projects, but underspending in infrastructure development has been a recurring issue. Recent briefings highlight major backlogs, with many schools not ready for the 2025 year due to severe resource shortages, threatening quality teaching.
Financial management has drawn Auditor General criticism, with unqualified audits but emphasis on unauthorised, irregular, and wasteful spending. Material findings point to unreliable performance data, lack of evidence for achievements, and slow fixes to audit issues. Educator vacancies top 70% in some areas, and the digital divide limits access to online tools. High poverty and unemployment – at 38% overall and over 50% for women – make things worse, especially in rural spots where 65% of people live.
These gaps have led to calls for better oversight, as seen in the department’s push for quarterly accountability sessions and campaigns like Ngwana Sejo to ramp up school revisions.
Strategic Priorities and Planned Fixes
The Lekgotla draws from the strategic plan’s priorities, aiming for improved learning and sound governance. Key goals include universal Early Childhood Development access, with 100% Grade R enrolment; boosting foundational skills to 80% literacy and 75% numeracy in Grade 3; and a 90% matric pass rate with more focus on maths, science, and Fourth Industrial Revolution skills.
Interventions stress teacher training, standardised assessments to cut dropouts, and closing the digital gap with full internet in schools. Safety and social cohesion get attention through partnerships with police and health services, targeting 100% compliance with norms. Pro-poor measures, like no-fee schools covering 88% of learners, nutrition programmes, and transport, aim to keep kids in class.
Financially, the focus is on ethical spending, skilled workforce, and reducing consultant reliance. The plan calls for better data quality, consequence management, and integrated planning to avoid past pitfalls like underspending.
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