The Eastern Cape Department of Education recently welcomed a team of Cuban Nationals into the Province at Mandla Makupula Education Leadership Institute (MMELI), in East London. In the year 2016 when the Government of the Republic South Africa signed a bilateral agreement in collaboration with the Government of the Republic of Cuba on professional services in the Basic Education, both parties agreed to provide and utilize skilled specialists in mathematics and science. The Eastern Cape received four specialists to help subject advisors in turn they would be helping teachers improve the level of teaching and learning in the said field. The team convened at Chris Hani West District (CHW) and were joined by specialists and subject advisors of the CHW District.  

Chris Hani West District Director, Nkosinathi Godlo warmly welcomed the entourage from Cuba and said that the CHW District is a semi urban/rural district that strives to improve its conditions to what it is through education and that the district is embarking on implementing changes that will help improve results in maths and science. “The visit comes at a time where the district has taken a conscious decision to try and increase mathematics and science learners because these subjects are part of our daily lives. We are overjoyed that our district is also benefiting from the collaboration”, added Godlo.

Cuban Directory General, Moraima Orosco Delgado who formed part of the team that visited the country expressed that she felt it is imperative to visit South Africa to see if the collaboration is yielding results. “As per the agreement with the Department of Basic Education, we’re visiting our four collaborators to see the work they’re doing first hand and attest if it is yielding results we hope to keep developing relations between the two countries”, said Delgado.

General Education and Training (GET) subject advisor, Lindiwe Moyake said that she felt passionate about the about the collaboration. “As our learners in the GET directorate are proceeding to Grade 4, they start to face various challenges and I hope that the skills we will be attaining as subject advisors will help the teachers and learners to swiftly proceed from foundation to intermediate phase", concluded Moyake.