More than 936 000 learners - from Grades R to 12 - streamed back to school on Wednesday, 21 January, for the start of the 2009 school year.

More than 31 000 teachers returned to work on Monday, 19 January, to put the finishing touches on preparations for 2009.

Schools generally finished their planning for this year in the final weeks of 2008.

This included finalising learner enrolments, transfers and departures, timetables, stocks of learning and teaching support materials (LTSM), 2009 school calendars, staff allocations and last-minute checks on buildings and equipment.

Contractors delivered almost all supplies of textbooks and other LTSM by 5 December last year, with the balance to follow from Monday, 19 January.

Ron Swartz, Head of Education in the Western Cape, said the key focus of the WCED in 2009 would be to ensure effective schools.

"We are fortunate in having large numbers of effective schools in all communities, thanks to the dedication and professionalism of our principals and teachers," he said.

"However, some schools struggle and need special support. Our job in 2009 will be to provide special support while also supporting all schools in their efforts to provide quality education."

The WCED will take a whole-school approach to providing special support, from leadership, governance and management to classroom practice and teaching. The department will also require high levels of accountability.

Other key focus areas will include:

• Continued implementation of the redesign of the WCED, to ensure that the department has the capacity to provide high levels of support to schools. This includes support provided by strong, multi-disciplinary teams in each of the WCED's 49 circuits.
• Continued expansion of the National School Nutrition Programme, to feed 238 000 learners in poor schools of the Western Cape.
• Continued implementation of the WCED's "Project Turnaround", to improve literacy and numeracy performance in primary schools and throughput rates in high schools.
• Expanding access to early childhood development (ECD) by building 111 new ECD classrooms at public schools and training 2 400 ECD practitioners.
• Providing access to bus transport for ECD learners for the first time as part of the WCED's Learner Transport Scheme.
• Ongoing work to improve safety at schools, including the installation of CCTV cameras at 60 high risk schools and the appointment of 75 Safety Resource and Learner Support Officers to support school safety measures and to deal with truancy.
• Appoint more full-time staff to support adult education and training (AET), market adult education and open new full-time AET centres.
• Continued implementation of the national Quality improvement, development, support and upliftment programme (QIDS-UP). Projects include school repairs and maintenance, school libraries, teacher training, special equipment and extra-mural programmes.
• Continued development and marketing of technical and vocational training at FET colleges.

"Our key concern is to improve access to quality education in poor communities," Mr Swartz said. "Education is the single most important instrument available to us to fight poverty and ensure equal opportunities for all."