Delivering the State of the Province Address at the legislature on Wednesday, Cjiekella said the provincial government had entered into a four-year capacity building programme for teachers with the Sishen Iron Ore Community Development Trust and Rhodes University.

In a bid to ensure quality teaching and learning, Cjiekella said the provincial government was able to provide schools with learner and educator workbooks for grades 1 - 6 in 2011.

“As government, we continue to ensure that all our learners have access to quality workbooks. We will increase the support and monitoring of schools on the usage of these workbooks.”

Cjiekella said the province is also piloting the HeyMath Project in 100 schools across the province.

The project is a curriculum and ITC integrated initiative aimed at changing the culture of teaching and learning of mathematics and participating schools have been given computerised maths programmes to enhance the learning of mathematics.

Cjiekella said the provincial government would continue to invest in Early Childhood Development (ECD) as it was a solid foundation that sets the tone for how learners perform in higher grades.