Cape Town - An audit by advocacy group Equal Education has highlighted serious problems with sanitation facilities at Western Cape schools, including a lack of toilets, no toilet paper and not soap for pupils.
The final version of the group’s Western Cape social audit, which was conducted in 244 schools, was released during a press conference on Tuesday, where a list of demands was also announced.
Education MEC Debbie Schafer, Community Safety MEC Dan Plato, Social Development MEC Albert Fritz and the deputy provincial police commissioner, Thembisile Patekile, attended the event.
The first part of the audit was released in April and focused primarily on safety and security issues at schools. The findings released in April included that corporal punishment had occurred in 83 percent of schools, at one out of three schools there had been drug/alcohol use in the previous three months while one out of six schools had a gang presence in the previous three months.
The findings released on Tuesday included that:
* At 74 percent of schools in the sample there was no toilet for persons with disabilities.
* More than half of pupils at quintile 1 schools, considered the poorest category of school, reported lacking access to sanitary pads.
Without accounting for broken toilets, 42 percent of Western Cape schools sampled didn’t have enough toilets and urinals to meet the Western Cape Education Department minimum of one toilet for every 35 pupils. However, when taking into account that 43 percent of toilets are broken, this number increased to 57 percent.
More than a quarter of learners surveyed reported that there was no toilet paper in their bathrooms. Four in five reported having no soap.
In terms of infrastructure it was reported that:
* An estimated 8 percent of schools was built entirely out of inappropriate materials.
* 42 percent of pupils reported having access to a library that was well-stocked with books.
* While 91 percent of pupils reported that their schools had computers, most of them reported having no access to a computer laboratory with internet.
* A quarter of pupils reported having no access to a sport field.
The group’s demands include that the department, SAPS and other relevant government departments co-ordinate their efforts and work together more closely on the issue of school safety needs and that the department audit every school that doesn’t have proper infrastructure for disabled pupils and put together a plan to urgently provide this.
They also demanded that Schafer as well as the provincial leadership of SAPS attend a public hearing, organised by members of EE and provisionally scheduled for October 5, to provide pupils with feedback.
Schafer said she would be studying the full report.
Western Cape Education Department spokesman Paddy Attwell said a 2014 audit of schools found that serious maintenance was needed to about 12 percent of ablution facilities.
He said the department had already started addressing this issue, starting with about 50 schools last year and another 60 this year.
He said the department was looking at increasing this rate.
Patekile said police would be studying the findings, adding that that police and schools were already working closely together.
Cape Argus