The provincial department of education is nowhere near making its November29 deadline to ensure that all its schools have adequate structures, water, electricity and sanitation.
That’s according to lobby group Equal Education.
To mark the six months until the cut-off date, yesterday a handful of Equal Education activists picketed in Bhisho to remind Department of Basic Education (DBE) Minister Angie Motshekga that time is running out to implement the norms and standards she agreed to for school infrastructure.
This was one of four pickets the lobby group held across the country. The others were held in the Western Cape‚ Gauteng and Limpopo.
A memorandum of demands was also handed over to the national headquarters.
About 14 activists stood outside the Bhisho state building displaying placards that read: “We will never give up until the department of education meets our demands”.
Speaking to the Daily Dispatch yesterday Equal Education provincial head Luzuko Sidimba said: “It’s sad to say that the education department is nowhere near meeting the deadline. We still have mud schools and schools without proper sanitation.”
On November 29 2013, Motshekga published legally binding norms and standards for school infrastructure.
It became law that every school must have water, electricity, working toilets, safe classrooms with a maximum of 40 pupil, security, and thereafter libraries, laboratories and sports facilities.
Equal Education deputy secretary Ntuthu Ndzomo said the DBE’s 2015 national statistics indicated that there are 452 schools without electricity, 913 without water and 128 with no sanitation facilities.
Furthermore, 4773 schools have an unreliable water supply and 2854 an unreliable electricity supply while 10419 schools still use pit latrines.
DBE spokesman Elijah Mhlanga, who received the memorandum at the national offices in Pretoria, said the department was doing its best to supply schools with the required infrastructure.
Mhlanga said the department would respond to the memorandum within seven to 14 days.
Education department set to miss norms and standards deadline
That’s according to lobby group Equal Education.
To mark the six months until the cut-off date, yesterday a handful of Equal Education activists picketed in Bhisho to remind Department of Basic Education (DBE) Minister Angie Motshekga that time is running out to implement the norms and standards she agreed to for school infrastructure.
This was one of four pickets the lobby group held across the country. The others were held in the Western Cape‚ Gauteng and Limpopo.
A memorandum of demands was also handed over to the national headquarters.
About 14 activists stood outside the Bhisho state building displaying placards that read: “We will never give up until the department of education meets our demands”.
Speaking to the Daily Dispatch yesterday Equal Education provincial head Luzuko Sidimba said: “It’s sad to say that the education department is nowhere near meeting the deadline. We still have mud schools and schools without proper sanitation.”
On November 29 2013, Motshekga published legally binding norms and standards for school infrastructure.
It became law that every school must have water, electricity, working toilets, safe classrooms with a maximum of 40 pupil, security, and thereafter libraries, laboratories and sports facilities.
Equal Education deputy secretary Ntuthu Ndzomo said the DBE’s 2015 national statistics indicated that there are 452 schools without electricity, 913 without water and 128 with no sanitation facilities.
Furthermore, 4773 schools have an unreliable water supply and 2854 an unreliable electricity supply while 10419 schools still use pit latrines.
DBE spokesman Elijah Mhlanga, who received the memorandum at the national offices in Pretoria, said the department was doing its best to supply schools with the required infrastructure.
Mhlanga said the department would respond to the memorandum within seven to 14 days.
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