The Eastern Cape Department of Education has today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Eastern Cape Education Development Trust (ECEDT) in an endevour to provide a lasting solution for the location and organization of all donor partnerships for the Department.

The ECDCT is a long-standing initiative started in 1998 as a mechanism to draw funding for all education relateddonor ships on behalf of our icon and erstwhile president, Nelson Mandela.  It was a platform meant to manage business initiative to support education in providing development support. 

The trustees have now agreed that it would be most ideal to establish a local office, based in Berea, East London, that will work with the Department. The signing of the MoU is a culmination of all the back-office preparation, and it outlines how the partnership will be structured in enabling a conducive environment for donor investments.

Ms. Anne-Lise Bollaert-Davies, the Executive Manager for the Trust says the partnership is meant to provide coordination, monitoring and evaluation of all donor partnerships. It will also strengthen endevours to source funding for critical support educational aspects including teacher development and providing needed synergy within the sector. “ Turning around education in the Province cannot be left to the Department alone”, said Bollaert-Davies. “The ECDT is but one small cog that will bring together the education Department and business to intervene decisively in through a focused footprint in the Province,” she said. 

The Trust hopes for an ambitious model that create centres of excellence with a whole school development model that starts at Early Childhood Development Phase right up to post matric level. “That would ensure that the schools as centres of excellence would equally be mirrored a concomitant development of communities of excellence.

In signing the MoU, on behalf of the Department, the Superintendent General, Temba Kojana said “This is indeed an important milestone for the Department. The focused coordination and evaluation of our partnerships will ensure that our donors get value for money for their social responsibility commitments.”

The trust aims to retain and continue to operate as an independent separate entity with its own character and brand values. This will ensure that it is able to operate with the required stealth and urgency unencumbered by the bureaucratic time lapses that are an unfortunate weakness of governmental processes.