Pretoria – The National Health Amendment Act, 2013, which will enable Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi to establish the Office of Health Standards Compliance (OHSC), is now effective.

Department of Health spokesperson, Joe Maila, said that the department will now set up the OHSC, which is fashioned on a similar model based on the British Quality Care Commission. It will have three units, with the first being the inspectorate.

It will be mandatory for the unit to inspect every health facility once every four years. Problematic health facilities will be inspected often to avoid deterioration.

Last year, 20 individuals were sent to Britain to train as inspectors of South African facilities.

Maila said that since last year, inspectors have been going around doing pre-inspections in the health facilities to see what is lacking and how the department can improve on them.

“Now that the law is in place, we are in a process to set up the office. We are coming in to sort out the issues raised from the findings by the inspectors,” Maila said.

Once a particular facility has been inspected, it will be graded on a scale of A to F, and a report will be subsequently released publicly.

The second unit of the body will be a health ombudsperson. The public will be able to lodge complaints about the negative experiences (including non-availability of drugs and long waiting times) encountered during their visits to health facilities.

By April last year, at least 40 individuals were trained and divided into facility improvement teams. They have been moving from district to district to help institutions to improve basic standards.

The department has further identified 400 unemployed graduates in three major fields including finance, human resources and ICT. They have undergone training in governance by the Public Administration Leadership and Management Academy.

The graduates were divided into teams of 45 each and dispatched to various provinces to help in the field of supply chain management, asset reconciliation and management and human resources management, especially the cleaning of PERSAL (public administration system) in the provinces. - SAnews.gov.za

Pretoria – The Free State Education MEC, Tate Makgoe, has called on parents to support the 408 094 learners in grades 1 - 6 and 9, who will be sitting for the Annual National Assessment (ANA) examinations from 10 - 13 September 2013.

“Get involved in your children’s homework by using learner workbooks and get ANA exemplar question papers and discuss possible answers,” Makgoe said.

He said parents will be informed of their children’s performance and given reports.

The ANA will assess learner literacy and numeracy abilities at foundation, intermediate and senior phase.

Literacy is the ability to read for knowledge, write logically and communicate well, while numeracy is the ability to reason with numbers and mathematics concepts.

The ANA will not be used for learner progression or promotion to the next grade but verify that every learner in every school is developing the languages and mathematics skills appropriate for the grades. This will allow educators to identify areas where they need to intervene.

“Our ANA pass rate target this year is 60 percent and we are committing to reward every school that obtains 100 percent with a hall,” Makgoe said.

To ensure the smooth administration of the 2013 ANA assessment, the department has provided schools with the 2013 ANA timetable; 2012 ANA report; 2013 diagnostic analysis report; 2013 Assessment Guidelines for teachers to be able to plan for the administration of ANA and 2013 Exemplars for teachers to prepare learners for the administration of ANA.

The ANA results will be released in December 2013.– SAnews.gov.za

Pretoria – Matrics around the country on Monday got a taste of what awaits them in the final exams, as learners sat for the first day of preliminary exams.

The exams -- which the Department of Basic Education says help to build confidence ahead of the biggest exam of the learners’ lives -- form part of the Grade 12 continuous assessments and account for 25% of the pupils’ final mark.

Universities and FET colleges often require these marks for admissions applications.

Limpopo, Gauteng and the Northern Cape are some of the provincial education departments which reported a smooth start to the exams.

“The preliminary examinations started very well. No incidents have been reported,” said Limpopo departmental spokesperson, Phuti Seloba.

Gauteng also got off to a good start. “No incidents were reported. Everything went on smoothly,” said Gauteng Department of Education spokesperson, Gershwin Chuenyane.

The Northern Cape’s departmental spokesperson, Sidney Stander, told SAnews that no hindrances were experienced.

“Everything went well according to plan,” he said.

However, in KwaZulu-Natal, incidents of disruption were reported, with many learners being unable to write the exams. The provincial department’s spokesperson, Muzi Mahlambi, told SAnews that the department was still monitoring the situation.

According to Mahlambi, rural schools were the ones mostly affected.

“We have called for a meeting with Sadtu to discuss the matter.”

Mahlambi said they might postpone the prelims if the situation does not get better.

Prelims help with the huge task of studying. Because the prelims and finals are so close to each other, pupils can get the bulk of their study work done. This helps to take the pressure off for the actual finals.

The preliminary exams also help teachers to identify areas that may need extra attention. – SAnews.gov.za

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