Mud schools here to stay

14/06/2012. Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshekga during a media briefing to hihglight recent development in Basic Education, held in Pretoria. Picture: Thobile Mathonsi

14/06/2012. Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshekga during a media briefing to hihglight recent development in Basic Education, held in Pretoria. Picture: Thobile Mathonsi

Published Nov 21, 2012

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Parliament - So-called mud schools look set to remain part of the Eastern Cape education scene for at least the next two years, parliamentarians heard on Wednesday.

“In terms of the number of schools that are mud structures: on our books we have 344. (Of these), 343 are in the Eastern Cape, and one is in KwaZulu-Natal,” Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga told MPs in the National Assembly.

Responding to a question about her department's plan to replace them with proper structures, she said it had been allocated R8.2

million for this in the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework.

While some of this money would be used to replace other “inappropriate and unsafe” school buildings, and to provide electricity, water and sanitation to hundreds of schools which did not have these services, a total of 100 mud schools would be replaced next year

“The plan was 50 schools first, which we've done. The next year it's a hundred. We are busy with them.”

Motshekga said there would be some rationalisation, and that not all mud schools would necessarily be replaced.

Heckled by opposition members, and pushed to say when all mud schools would be replaced, she responded: “Rest assured it will be done... we're supposed to do the rest in 2014/15.” - Sapa

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