JOHANNESBURG – The Gauteng Department of Education beat a solid competition to win the “Improving the Delivery of Public Service Category Award” at the United Nations Public Service Awards for having distinguished itself in outstanding public service delivery.
The department received the award at an award ceremony held at Seoul, Republic of Korea, from June 23 to 26.
The UN Public Service Awards are aimed at recognising excellence in public service internationally. It rewards the creative achievements and contributions of public service institutions that lead to a more effective and responsive public administration in countries worldwide.
The department won the award through its special intervention project called the Secondary School Improvement Programme (SSIP).
SSIP is a flagship programme lunched by the department as an intervention programme to improve the quality of education in schools and to see improved levels of achievements particularly in underperforming schools in Gauteng.
Now in its fifth year of implementation the SSIP has become an important element of improving the quality of education in Gauteng Schools. By providing support to educators and school managers to ensure better curriculum delivery during the school week, as well as supplementary tuition on weekends and school holidays, SSIP has helped 435 priority schools to achieve the provincial benchmarks.
The award recognized the Gauteng Department of Education and its Secondary School Improvement Programme, as being amongst the examples of excellence in public service, not just in Africa but internationally. This prestigious award recognises the GDE as the best public service delivery institution in Africa and as one of the best throughout the world.
Receiving this award on behalf of the department was the newly appointed Gauteng MEC for Education, Mr Panyaza Lesufi, former Education MEC, Ms Barbara Creecy and Head of Department, Mr Boy Ngobeni.
