The Western Cape Education Department (abbreviated WCED) is the

department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

of the

Government of the Western Cape The Western Cape province of South Africa is governed in a parliamentary system in which the people elect the Provincial Parliament, and the parliament elects the Premier as head of the executive. The Premier leads a cabinet of provincial min ...

responsible for

primary Primary or primaries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels * Primary (band), from Australia * Primary (musician), hip hop musician and record producer from South Korea * Primary Music, Israeli record label Works * ...

and

secondary Secondary may refer to: Science and nature * Secondary emission, of particles ** Secondary electrons, electrons generated as ionization products * The secondary winding, or the electrical or electronic circuit connected to the secondary winding i ...

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Va ...

within the

Western Cape The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...

province of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. The political leader of the department is the

Provincial Minister of Education Provincial may refer to: Government & Administration * Provincial capitals, an administrative sub-national capital of a country * Provincial city (disambiguation) * Provincial minister (disambiguation) * Provincial Secretary, a position in Can ...

; this is Donald Grant.

History

During the

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

era, education in South Africa was segregated according to race, with different government departments administering schools for the different races. What is now the Western Cape was at that time part of the

Cape Province The Province of the Cape of Good Hope ( af, Provinsie Kaap die Goeie Hoop), commonly referred to as the Cape Province ( af, Kaapprovinsie) and colloquially as The Cape ( af, Die Kaap), was a province in the Union of South Africa and subsequen ...

, and schools for

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

students were run by the Education Department of the Cape Provincial Administration. Schools for

coloured Coloureds ( af, Kleurlinge or , ) refers to members of multiracial ethnic communities in Southern Africa who may have ancestry from more than one of the various populations inhabiting the region, including African, European, and Asian. South ...

students were run by the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

Education Department, while schools for

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...

students were run by the Department of Education and Training. Some integration of these schools had occurred during the last years of apartheid, but the administrations remained divided. On 27 April 1994, the date of the 1994 general election, the

Interim Constitution of South Africa The Interim Constitution was the fundamental law of South Africa from the first non-racial general election on 27 April 1994 until it was superseded by the final constitution on 4 February 1997. As a transitional constitution it required th ...

came into effect, abolishing the old provinces and establishing the nine new provinces. The new Western Cape Education Department inherited those schools of the previous departments that were located within the Western Cape.

Structure

The administrative head of the department, subordinate to the Minister, is the Superintendent-General of Education (also known as the Head of Education); this is Penny Vinjevold. In the 2010/11 financial year the department had 40,181 employees and a budget of R11,845,691,000. It is responsible for all primary and secondary education in the province, including the provision of

government school State schools (in England, Wales, Australia and New Zealand) or public schools (Scottish English and North American English) are generally primary or secondary schools that educate all students without charge. They are funded in whole or in pa ...

s, Further Education and Training colleges and

Adult Basic Education Adult education, distinct from child education, is a practice in which adults engage in systematic and sustained self-educating activities in order to gain new forms of knowledge, skills, attitudes, or values. Merriam, Sharan B. & Brockett, Ralp ...

, and the oversight of

independent school An independent school is independent in its finances and governance. Also known as private schools, non-governmental, privately funded, or non-state schools, they are not administered by local, state or national governments. In British Eng ...

The Western Cape is divided into eight education districts; four are "rural" districts which correspond to one or more district municipalities, while the other four are "urban" or "Metro" districts within the

City of Cape Town The City of Cape Town ( af, Stad Kaapstad; xh, IsiXeko saseKapa) is the metropolitan municipality which governs the city of Cape Town, South Africa and its suburbs and exurbs. As of the 2011 census, it had a population of 3,740,026. The remo ...

. The districts are: * Metro Central * Metro East * Metro North * Metro South *

Cape Winelands The Boland (Afrikaans for "top country" or "land above") is a region of the Western Cape province of South Africa, situated to the northeast of Cape Town in the middle and upper courses of the Berg and Breede Rivers, around the Boland Mountains ...

* Eden &

Central Karoo The Central Karoo District Municipality (Afrikaans: Sentraal Karoo-distriksmunisipaliteit) is a district municipality located in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. Its municipality code is DC5. Geography The Central Karoo District Municipa ...

Overberg __NOTOC__ Overberg is a region in South Africa to the east of Cape Town beyond the Hottentots-Holland mountains. It lies along the Western Cape Province's south coast between the Cape Peninsula and the region known as the Garden Route in the e ...

West Coast West Coast or west coast may refer to: Geography Australia * Western Australia *Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia * West Coast, Tasmania **West Coast Range, mountain range in the region Canada * Britis ...

The districts are responsible for the management of education, with policy and planning being handled by the head office. Each district is also divided into a number of "circuits", which provide advice, support, and specialised facilities to a smaller collection of schools. The department also supervises the six

Further Education Further education (often abbreviated FE) in the United Kingdom and Ireland is education in addition to that received at secondary school, that is distinct from the higher education (HE) offered in universities and other academic institutions. I ...

and

Training Training is teaching, or developing in oneself or others, any skills and knowledge or Physical fitness, fitness that relate to specific practicality, useful Competence (human resources), competencies. Training has specific goals of improving on ...

colleges in the province. These are: *

College of Cape Town College of Cape Town (CCT), is a public TVET College located in Cape Town, South Africa, in the province of Western Cape, and it mainly serves students from the Southern Suburbs, Northern Suburbs region, along with Klipfontein District. The co ...

* False Bay College *

Northlink College Northlink College is a Government higher education institution situated in Bellville, Western Cape, South Africa. It is fully accredited by the Council on Higher Education and Department of Higher Education and Training (DoHET)(South Africa). The ...

* West Coast College * Boland College * South Cape College

References

External links

Western Cape Education Department Online

Western Cape Government
{{Authority control

Education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Va ...

Ministries established in 1994 Education in the Western Cape