After years of under-performance, the province has shown that things can change for the better

MEC Mandla Makupula was a stickler for detail, and lifted the provincial education department out of crisis

The Eastern Cape education department has defended Mandla Makupula’s comments that children have no rights, saying it was taken out of context.

Newspapers have reported the Eastern Cape’s minister of education said children who are dependent on their parents do not have any rights.

Amid legal wrangles with Equal Education over SA’s education infrastructure, the Eastern Cape has opted to improve two "appallingly unsafe" schools.

"Dismal system" means that many schools in the Eastern Cape don’t have enough teachers while others have too many of them.