1. The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) has developed an online inventory record-keeping system for school furniture and equipment.

2. The purpose of this online system is to assist with the recording of all furniture and equipment in the possession of schools.

3. The advantages of having the information captured online include the following:
3.1 Schools and districts will have easy access to the most recent furniture and equipment statistics when determining and prioritising top-up needs on an annual basis. Shortages and surpluses can be easily identified. An opportunity will be given annually for online updating of this information.
3.2 Schools and districts can access and print out useful reports online via Edu-Info.

4. During the first opportunity to capture data about furniture and equipment during May 2016, some schools raised concerns about the fact that some furniture and equipment were purchased with school funds and not WCED allocations. It is hereby confirmed that there is no intention on the part of the WCED to lay claim to any furniture or equipment that belongs to a school. The online facility is merely to be used as a management tool.

5. It was found that some schools did not perform stocktaking prior to the online capturing process during May 2016 and/or that there was insufficient time to commence with or complete the online data capturing for all furniture and equipment.

6. To address these concerns, schools will be given a final opportunity to capture furniture and equipment details online from 08 to 19 August 2016.

7. All schools that have not yet captured their furniture and equipment needs online are requested to ensure that stocktaking is finalised before this time and that information is captured online.

8. When accessing CEMIS, schools should select the "Administration" option on the menu bar. On the drop-down list, select "Furniture and Equipment" and then select the "Welcome" or "Capture" screen. On the welcome screen, schools will be provided with general information about the online system and on the "Capture" screen schools will be able to select and capture data about specific furniture and equipment items.

9. The following persons may be contacted during the capture period, should assistance be required with the capturing of your furniture and equipment details and the sign-off process:

Rene Alberts (tel. no. 021 467 2137) or email address
Rene.Alberts@westerncape.gov.za

Scobinae Snyders (tel. no. 021 467 2004) or email address
Scobinae.Snyders@westerncape.gov.za

Le-Roy Sylvester (tel. no. 021 467 2115) or email address
Le-Roy.Sylvester@westerncape.gov.za

10. The report icon on the left of the screen affords the opportunity to print the full list of furniture and equipment items captured.

11. Once the details of all the furniture and equipment items have been captured, the principal is expected to sign off on the system.

12. Please access CEMIS as early as possible during the capturing period to ensure that the capturing and sign-off processes are timeously concluded.

13. Kindly bring the contents of this minute to the attention of all relevant personnel.


SIGNED: HA LEWIS
ACTING DEPUTY DIRECTOR-GENERAL: EDUCATION PLANNING
DATE: 2016:00:00