It’s impossible for the Department of Education to provide the infrastructure required in terms of the Norms and Standards legislation, according to the official in charge of providing it.
It’s impossible for the Department of Education to provide the infrastructure required in terms of the Norms and Standards legislation, according to the official in charge of providing it.
Thabang Monare, the Director of Physical Resource Management in the Eastern Cape Department of Basic Education, also told a briefing of education stakeholders in Bhisho last Friday that there is a R52 million backlog in schools infrastructure in the province.
The event was a briefing by the Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM) and Equal Education in Bhisho’s Good News Church on Friday 27 January, on the findings of two recently compiled reports on the state of education infrastructure in the Eastern Cape.
Present were education activists, journalists, government officials and school children, to discuss improving the state of basic education.
In November 2016, Equal Education visited schools in seven districts across the Eastern Cape, investigating the government’s compliance with the Regulations relating to Minimum Uniform Norms and Standards for School Infrastructure.
This is a legally binding commitment to fix all schools in terms of the Norms and Standards within three years of its publication, November 2013.
This means that as of 29 November 2016, it is illegal for any school in South Africa not to have access to water, electricity or toilets, and for any school to be built of wood, mud, asbestos, or zinc.
“What we found in the Eastern Cape were crisis conditions,” Equal Education said at last Friday's briefing.
Equal Education head in the Eastern Cape, Luzuko Sidimba, presented pictorial evidence of schools that are substantially or entirely made of inappropriate materials or have no access to water or electricity.
“In total, 17 of the 60 schools we visited constitute an outright violation of the three-year Norms and Standards deadline,” Sidimba said.
The report showed that of these 17 schools, 41% did not appear on any list for infrastructure upgrades.
Thirteen schools were either entirely or substantially inappropriate. These were almost all mud schools, with some zinc shacks.
Of the 60 schools visited, 46 had at least one inappropriate structure.
Forty-four schools reported that they have access to water only some of the time.
Only 15% of schools visited had flush toilets installed. At 52% of the schools there were more than 30 learners per toilet, and at 65% there were more than 30 learners per working toilet.
Toilets were routinely filthy. Absolute shortages and broken toilets frequently led to entire schools depending on two or three pit latrines.
At one school, the ratio of learners to working toilets was 294:1. Four schools had no electricity whatsoever.
The Department of Basic Education (DBE) had by 29 November 2016 admitted that it was going to fail to meet the first three-year deadline stipulated by the courts, but maintained both that its best efforts had been made, and that there had been significant progress: remaining backlogs were small, the Department said.
Equal Education has lodged court papers against the Department to close loopholes in the Norms and Standards, asking the court to include requirements to upgrade substantially inappropriate schools, as well as entirely inappropriate ones, as well as for progress reports; holding government entities responsible for providing insfrastructure and forcing the deadline.
Various stakeholders were given the opportunity to respond to the report.
Monare said they estimated a R52 million backlog in infrastructure at schools.
He said the challenges they face go beyond infrastructure and are societal issues, and that there are various competing costs to consider.
The director also reminded the audience that infrastructure is a long-term process.
He said it was at district level where it was decided which projects would be first in line.
"I always say to the district directors that you will identify 20 schools in your district for building.
The other 22 districts will also do the same. You take 23 and you multiply it by 20 – and it’s impossible that the department of education can provide that infrastructure.”
Forty-four schools reported that they have access to water only some of the time.
While every school had access to some form of water supply, an overwhelming 42 had access through rainwater harvesting alone.
Just 18 of the 60 schools had access to water that is supplied by the municipality.
Only 15% of schools visited had flush toilets installed. At 52% of the schools there were more than 30 learners per toilet, and at 65% there were more than 30 learners per working toilet.
Toilets were routinely filthy. Absolute shortages and broken toilets frequently led to entire schools depending on two or three pit latrines.
At one school, the ratio of learners to working toilets was 294:1. Four schools had no electricity whatsoever.
Of the 56 schools Equal Education visited that had a grid connection, 14% did not have regular access to electricity.
More than a third of schools with access to electricity didn’t have electricity throughout the school, with schools often only having power in the administration block and not in any of its classrooms.
The Department of Basic Education (DBE) had by 29 November 2016 admitted that it was going to fail to meet the first three-year deadline stipulated by the courts, but maintained both that its best efforts had been made, and that there had been significant progress: remaining backlogs were small, the Department said.
The report states that Equal Education has lodged court papers against the Department to close loopholes in the Norms and Standards, asking the court to include requirements to upgrade substantially inappropriate schools, as well as entirely inappropriate ones.
Other objectives sought in the court papers are that:
* The Department makes public the provincial progress reports;
* All relevant government entities are held accountable for infrastructure provision;
* Schools are actually fixed by the deadline rather than the Department simply plans to fix them.
Various stakeholders were given the opportunity to respond to the report.
Jonathan Gordan, an independent consultant for the Government Technical Advisory Centre (G-Tech), a division of the National Treasury, first spoke in his personal capacity.
“There are some things that need to shift when it comes to how we deal with one another,” he said.
“There’s a risk that sometimes we deal with one another [out of context]and ahistorically.
We end up possibly being over critical of the Department and participating in the provincial sport of kick the department while it’s down – and the department is down most of the time.”
Thabang Monare, the Director of Physical Resource Management in the Eastern Cape Department of Basic Education, presented various budget challenges in response to this report.
He mentioned that the estimations they made show there is a R52 million backlog when it comes to infrastructure at schools.
He attempted to show that the challenges they face go beyond infrastructure, but are societal issues, and that there are various competing costs to consider.
The director also reminded the audience that infrastructure is a long-term process.
"The prioritisation that schools get is decentralised to the district level, where it is decided which projects will be first in line,” Monare said.
"I always say to the district directors that you will identify 20 schools in your district for building.
The other 22 districts will also do the same. You take 23 and you multiply it by 20 – and it’s impossible that the department of education can provide that infrastructure.”
