The excuse that the Norms and Standards regulations are too expensive a law to comply with does not wash, writes Equal Education.
Two weeks from now, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga and the provincial education MECs will commit a shameful act - an affront to the right to a quality education for all our country’s pupils, writes Equal Education
On Tuesday, November 29, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga and her MECs will have failed to ensure that all public schools have access to water, electricity and decent sanitation.
They will have failed to ensure that on this date, all schools made of inappropriate materials have been replaced. They will have failed to comply with the Norms and Standards for School Infrastructure Regulations.
The impromptu press briefing that was held by the Department of Basic Education (DBE) this week highlights another, entirely avoidable, failure of Motshekga’s department: she has not complied with the simple request to release the Norms and Standards progress reports for each province.
Until such time as she does so, it is impossible to take her at her word.
Motshekga on Monday spoke explicitly to her department’s efforts to meet the November 29 deadline for the Norms and Standards for School Infrastructure. She also claimed to welcome being held accountable by the public, but in practice, she makes it difficult to do so through a failure to release the progress reports.
By law, these must be produced every year, showing progress made in eliminating backlogs and plans for the year ahead. But we are still waiting for last year’s reports to be made public, almost a full year after their due date of November 29 last year.
The minister also claimed notable progress had been made on all three years' Norms and Standards deadlines described above. EE sees every school built as a victory. But even the minister herself did not deny the overall failure to meet the Norms and Standards.
You cannot spin violating the law as “a good effort”. Massive backlogs remain.
Aside from those schools in which pupils and teachers cannot quench their thirst or wash their hands, switch on a light or a projector, and crouch in an open field to relieve themselves, thousands more schools suffer from partial, but inadequate, provision of basic services.
There are 5 004 schools that suffer an unreliable water supply, 4 986 schools that have only pit latrines as a form of sanitation, and 2 923 schools with an unreliable electricity supply. There are also thousands of South African pupils and teachers at risk of exposure to the deadly substance asbestos daily.
In addition, the minister’s claims highlighted two issues relating to the veracity of this data.
The data states that now, and for the past two years, no school in Limpopo has had no water supply. This is false. EE visited schools in Limpopo during this time which had no water.
Regarding inappropriate structures, the minister only speaks of the original 510 Accelerated School Infrastructure Delivery Initiative (ASIDI) schools, and a further 189 identified since. But these figures are not comprehensive. For example, the minister listed 66 schools in the Western Cape that were inappropriate.
In fact, the Western Cape’s own implementation plan lists 207 schools on public land alone, which are entirely inappropriate by law.
These are just the discrepancies between different government figures. It is likely that in provinces like the Eastern Cape and Limpopo, the backlog is greater. In the Eastern Cape, EE has visited schools in need which are not on any list for upgrades.
The minister’s discussion of inappropriate structures also reveals little attempt to identify inappropriate structures and that these have not been budgeted for. She has claimed this as an “additional” 189 schools which were identified later, on top of the 510 the department knew about.
But this is misleading. The 510 were identified in 2011 and 2012, as part of the ASIDI programme.
The minister has therefore admitted provinces themselves have failed to prioritise inappropriate school structures, because additional schools were only identified a year and a half into the Norms deadline and these have not been budgeted for.
But ASIDI is not paid for by provinces; it's a national programme. So if there are no funds for these “additional” schools, then the provinces are not devoting any funds to meeting this aspect of the deadline.
It is a lack of political will and of capacity that has brought us here: politicians and public servants who planned to fail to meet the first deadline.
As an example, the Limpopo Education Department’s infrastructure plan (which the provincial department was tardy in making public) states repeatedly that it will not meet the first deadline for infrastructure implementation.
It even states that it will fail to meet the final 2030 deadlines stipulated by the Norms and Standards.
The excuse that the Norms and Standards regulations are too expensive a law to comply with does not wash: the inept Eastern Cape Education Department disgracefully underspent its school infrastructure budget by R530 million in the past financial year.
In October, Gauteng MEC for Education Panyaza Lesufi admitted in a reply to the provincial legislature that 29 schools made entirely of asbestos would not be replaced before the November 29 deadline.
Six of these schools are in the planning phase. None of the 29 have yet been rebuilt. Poor planning and financial management, failure to acquire land on which to build and contractor delays are key reasons for this lack of progress.
The Western Cape Education Department has intentionally (and callously) excluded 226 public schools from any upgrades because they are situated on private land.
Those schools built on private land happen to be situated in the winelands, attended by the children of farmworkers, while their parents toil in the sun to make ends meet. Of these schools, 21 are entirely inappropriate by law. Fifteen are partially or entirely made of asbestos.
This week, we remember November 2011, when we and the Legal Resources Centre conducted research that went beyond the statistics. Activists and lawyers went from province to province and from village to village transcribing the experiences of teachers, pupils, parents, caretakers and determined school principals.
We put faces to each statistic. These became the basis of EE’s court case to force Motshekga to prescribe the Norms and Standards.
We now again turn to the court to close the gaps in the infrastructure regulations, in the #FixTheNorms case. Among other things, we are asking the court for the inclusion of an accountability mechanism, compelling Motshekga’s department to make public the annual implementation plans and reports within a reasonable time of receiving them from MECs.
It is notable that while the minister mentions proposed revisions to the Norms, none of these revisions are the key accountability provisions which EE and the EE Law Centre are asking for.
We can only presume that this is because the minister enjoys being held accountable less than her public utterances would suggest.
We have written to the nine provincial MECs for education, requesting their Norms and Standards progress reports they are required by law to submit to Motshekga annually.
But none of these have been made public.
Not a single province complied with our request. Nor did Motshekga’s department.
Minister Motshekga, we urge you to see reason, as you did three years ago. #FixTheNorms and release the progress reports.
We are growing increasingly impatient to see schools fixed, and we are ever determined to continue the fight to get the job done.
We call on all pupils, teachers, parents and other members of the public to join us as we organise and mobilise to fix our schools.
Equal Education advocates for quality and equality in the South African education system, and advancing youth leadership development. EE’s campaigns involve pupils, parents, teachers and community members. Read more at equaleducation.org.za
What's wrong with our school: a pupil's account
MY NAME is Mfanangani Mthethwa. I am in Grade 8 at Nkangala Secondary School in Weenen, KwaZulu-Natal.
Weenen has 19 primary schools but only two high schools. A lot of pupils drop out after Grade 9 since secondary schools are far.
At Nkangala, it is unfortunate that we don’t have school premises. We are using the Thandanani Primary School yard and two of their classrooms. Nkangala has only two grades (Grade 8 and Grade 9) and three teachers.
We share pit toilets with pupils from Thandanani. We also have an issue with the water we are using at the school. We use a borehole and it is 5m away from the pit toilets.
Every time we drink that water, we get sick and our teeth change colour. We also get sores on our mouths. These two schools really need proper water from taps.
The two classrooms we use at Thandanani also have issues. The Grade 8 class does not have windows, only a frame. When it rains, we get distracted because it literally rains inside.
Our books and papers get wet, and we end up moving to the side of the classroom furthest away from the window frame. When it’s windy, the classroom gets dusty and we cough.
It is also hard to concentrate in a cold classroom.
These problems are pushing us away from getting the quality education that we deserve.
* A pupil of Nkangala Secondary School in KwaZulu-Natal
The buildings are falling apart: an educator's story
THE STRUCTURE that we are given by our sister school, Thandanani Primary School, seems to be falling apart.
It cannot withstand the climate conditions any more, they are prevailing in the classrooms.
A couple of weekends ago, some parts of the classroom collapsed; luckily, there were no pupils inside, but this could have happened during class.
The wall shakes when there is a strong wind and there are a lot of cracks in it.
Our right to safety and dignity is strongly violated at this school and the KwaZulu-Natal Education Department has turned a blind eye to this situation.
We know the first deadline for Norms and Standards states that we should get proper water, improved sanitation and appropriate school structures, but none of that is happening at Nkangala.
The village is in desperate need of a new high school.
A lot of pupils do not have scholar transport to attend secondary education in other villages.
Most pupils at this village leave school to be farm workers and housewives.
* Levine Sekonyela teaches grades 8 and 9 at Nkangala Secondary School
Teachers endure many of the hardships pupils do
The struggle to #FixOurSchools and #FixTheNorms aims to pressure the minister of Basic Education to urgently address the school infrastructure crisis.
The success of this campaign depends on all players in the education sector and beyond joining hands and mobilising to achieve a common goal.
After all, in circumstances such as these, teachers endure many of the same hardships as pupils.
It is teachers who must convey knowledge in mud, zinc and asbestos classrooms.
In the stifling summer heat, they must do their best to keep the attention of exhausted, hungry pupils. In winter, they must brave the awful cold.
It is teachers who must enable pupils to fulfil their potential, when it is too dark to see the writing on the board in a classroom without electricity.
How can a teacher achieve good results when their pupils have no water to drink at school or when they must allow pupils to leave the grounds to get water?
Broken rafters, exposed wires, cracks in walls, holes in the floors, lurking asbestos fibres and pit toilets are the working conditions of teachers.
The state has a duty towards the teachers it employs.
The Occupational Health and Safety Act places a duty on employers to provide and maintain a safe working environment.
The act provides that “every employer shall provide and maintain, as far as is reasonably practicable, a working environment that is safe and without risk to the health of his employees”.
Further, the Public Service Regulations provide that “a head of department shall establish and maintain a safe and healthy work environment for employees of the department”.
The state, in its capacity as an employer, has an obligation to ensure teachers are able to work under safe conditions that do not pose a substantial risk to their safety.
For teachers in decrepit and dilapidated mud, zinc and asbestos schools, it is clear that this is far from the reality.
Teachers who work in poorly resourced schools in disadvantaged communities face a daily struggle.
Many of these teachers begin their careers with passion and focus, wanting to make a difference. Through their experiences in the public education system, they become demoralised.
Teacher unions repeatedly draw attention to the conditions their members work under, arguing it is wrong to focus on poor teacher performance without understanding the daily struggles even highly motivated teachers face in poor schools.
This is true or at least partially true - it does not excuse teacher absenteeism, for instance. But while they rightly raise the issue of the conditions of employment, the only time action is taken is when salary negotiations are due.
More is needed: mobilising and campaigning are needed. It is not enough to draw attention to the problems without taking action to address them. Nor should organisational divisions or political affiliations prevent unity in striving towards a goal which will benefit pupils and teachers alike.
Equal Education therefore calls on teacher unions (Sadtu and Naptosa in particular) to be on the right side of history, and protect their members.
Teachers need to be able to work in decent conditions.
Join the struggle to #FixOurSchools!
Equal Education