The ANC and the government will make sure education is declared an essential service, party secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said on Monday.

“The lekgotla agreed that a mechanism to monitor all-round accountability in the (education) sector be devised as a matter of urgency,” Mantashe told reporters in Johannesburg.

“As a number one priority, the ANC and its government will leave no stone unturned in making education an essential service.”

-Sapa