Schools to be fixed

HUNDREDS of Eastern Cape schools have been promised electricity, water and sanitation within a year.

The national Department of Basic Education promised yesterday it would also replace close to 1000 dilapidated or mud- built schools, officials told the Daily Dispatch.

The upgrades will be done through the Accelerated Schools Infrastructure Delivery Initiative (Asidi), an intervention headed by Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga, will do the upgrades aimed at implementing basic safety norms and standards in schools infrastructure.

The department has vowed that no school in the country will be without basic services by the end of March next year.

“At the end of every quarter, the depart ment undertakes to provide progress re ports to demonstrate progress towards the eradication of mud schools and schools with no basic services,” said Motshekga’s spokeswoman, Hope Mokgathle.

Mokgathle said the department would replace 496 prefabricated and poorly built schools as well as 446 mud schools over the next three years, at a cost of R8.2-billion.

This would cost R8.2-billion.

Panyaza Lesufi, spokesman for the department, said the Eastern Cape had 531 schools without water, 316 without proper sanitation and 229 without electricity, and all would benefit from the pro gramme.

The depart ment’s nation al target for the current fi nancial year is to replace 100 inappropriate schools, to supply electricity to 714 schools, sanitation to 514 and water to 1069. The project, which was launched in 2011, is already behind schedule, though officials said it would meet the targets for the next three years.

According to Mokgathle, the department is in the process of eradicating all inappropriate schools, including schools constructed from prefab structures, and provide a basic level of services.

Mokgathle said progress made on projects for the past financial years 2011-12 and 2012- 13 includes:

lCompletion of work on nine of 49 in appropriate schools has been completed;

l107 of 168 schools have been electrified;

l144 of 214 schools have been provided with sanitation; and

l102 of 161 schools provided with water.

The department had come under fire from lobby group Equal Education (EE) for failing to deliver on its previous targets.

EE criticised under-expenditure of R624- million, which also resulted in the department failing to meet a court-ordered deadline of August 20 last year to build 12 schools in the Eastern Cape.

According to Equal Education Media Officer Kate Wilkinson, 49 of the 446 mud schools in the country are in the Eastern Cape – schools the department had ear marked to replace with appropriate structures by the end of the 2011-12 financial year.

“The Department of Basic Education committed itself to completing 12 schools in the Eastern Cape by 20 August 2012, but this date lapsed without a single school being completed,” Wilkinson said.

“The department cited various conditions that had caused delays in the completion of the 12 schools, including poor accessibility of sites due to improper roads, difficult terrain, bad weather and difficulty in obtaining material supplies.

“During a presentation to Parliament, the department told committee members that four of the completed schools would be officially opened by President Zuma on October 2 2012.

“However, in October 2012 only two schools were handed over by the President – Mphathiswa Senior Primary in Libode and Dakhile Junior Secondary School in Lusikisiki.”

Provincial education spokesman Malibongwe Mtima said the project would greatly assist the infrastructure backlog the province was experi encing. “We’re very happy with the intervention from the national department. Once the infra structure backlogs have been eradicated, we as a province will be able to focus on teaching and learning in the class room,” he said. —