Basic education minister Angie Motshekga admits her department is struggling with the backlog in eradicating mud schools.
Speaking in Port St Johns at the opening of the state-of-the-art Dalibango Senior Primary School on Friday in Mancu village as part of the Accelerated School’s Infrastructure Delivery Initiative (Asidi), Motshekga said delivery delays in rural areas were partly because the department was low on funds.
“It stalled us a little, but in the last budget we were given an extra R800bn to fast track our work.
“What we also discover as we build, going to areas like this one [Port St Johns] is that there are schools that the province has not recorded. ”
Another big challenge in the Eastern Cape is that there are many schools on the Asidi list that are actually unviable – in other words, by law are not supposed to be built.
Also, she said, the rationalisation process was too slow.
Being present at the handover had helped her to get a better sense of the problems facing some schools, she said.
One of the problems raised by concerned parents was the shortage of teachers at the school.
The school has two teachers for 110 pupils in grades 4 to 7.
School governing body chair Dalibango Nazela said he hoped that Motshekga would deploy more teachers there.
“This is the best thing to ever happen in this village,” he said.
He said the villagers started the school themselves in 1998 because they knew education was the way for their children to have a bright future.
“Our children used to study in a mud church.
“We built rondavels, and as time went by, they leaked and we had to coat the structures and thatch the roof to make them safer.”
Motshekga said: “There are norms and standards which say one teacher to 40 pupils. That’s where, for me I think there’s a huge opportunity for ICT (information and communication technology).
“The way the area is situated, they won’t be able to have the right numbers, so they must use ICTs to close the gap.”
Pupil Endinako Madadiyela said: “I always wished for a new school. I am happy now.”
The school cost R16m to build.
Down the road in Lusikisiki, Taleni Junior Secondary School was officially opened on Friday by the provincial education department...