Cape Town - Advocacy group Equal Education (EE) is expected to hold a “sleep-in” outside Parliament on Wednesday night and on Thursday, demanding the Department of Basic Education publish infrastructure implementation plans for all nine provinces.
EE members will also sleep outside the offices of the Department of Basic Education in Pretoria and the Eastern Cape Education Department in King William’s Town.
The regulations relating to minimum norms and standards for public school infrastructure, released in November 2013, set out what physical infrastructure and services all schools should have and the timeframes for their provision. The Education MECs have to, on an annual basis, provide the basic education minister with detailed implementation plans for their province.
The plans were handed to the minister, Angie Motshekga, in November.
EE said it had written to the minister several times to request the plans, while its law centre submitted an access to information request. “Without making the plans public there is no way to assess whether provincial departments have planned and budgeted adequately.”
EE said that according to the norms and standards, all schools with no water, electricity and sanitation had to be provided with these services by the end of November 2016. Schools made entirely of mud, asbestos and wood needed to be rebuilt by then.
Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene had said in his budget speech the November 2016 timeframe would be met, “but nobody can accept this without seeing that there are plans, which have been budgeted for”.
Department of Basic Education spokesman Elijah Mhlanga said that at the last meeting of the Council of Education Ministers two weeks ago, it had been agreed that the provinces would finalise and prepare the plans for publishing.
“The department has nothing to hide, and it is unfortunate that some organisations want the plans to be rushed at the expense of internal processes. (Their) insinuations that Minister Motshekga and the MECs are hiding something are misleading, devoid of truth, and disingenuous.”
The plans needed careful consideration since they affected the way provinces would deliver on this responsibility. “It’s not as simple as co-ordinating a march and sleepover in a few places around the country. Contrary to what the attention-seeking NGOs would have the public believe, no time has been wasted. In fact, an infrastructure directorate has been established within the planning and monitoring branch to deal decisively with… infrastructure.”
Cape Argus