Johannesburg - Prisoners at the Johannesburg Medium A Prison have better access to toilets than pupils at 30 percent of Gauteng high schools.
This was revealed during a schools audit that was conducted in more than 200 schools between February and April by lobby group Equal Education and released on Wednesday.
According to the audit, in about 30 percent of Gauteng schools, more than 100 pupils share a single working toilet. Research by the Wits Justice Project in 2013 indicated that 65 men at the overcrowded Johannesburg Medium A Prison share one toilet.
When pupils are able to access toilets, the conditions are not good.
Nearly 70 percent of pupils don’t have soap in their schools, while more than 40 percent don’t have access to toilet paper.
Other findings were:
* At least 70 percent of schools don’t have a functional library.
* All schools have access to water and 98 percent have access to electricity.
* At least 97 percent of all schools have a nutrition centre.
* About 80 percent of schools have a shortage of either desks or chairs.
* Half the schools have classrooms with a hole in the ceiling or floor, and 20 percent of schools have more than five broken windows.
* About 40 percent of schools are considered usually unsafe or only sometimes safe because they don’t have either an adequate fence or sufficient security guards.
Sfiso Mollo, who headed the audit, said it was clear that there was a huge crisis in sanitation and overcrowding in schools.
“When you look at the schools, you realise that sanitation is a big problem. Pupils don’t have access to water, toilet paper, soap or sanitary pads, and some toilets are blocked.
“Some of the problems in schools will not be solved by publishing the norms and standards, but they are important for some of the other problems,” Mollo said.
Basic Education spokesman Elijah Mhlanga said the department would publish the norms and standards for schools as soon as Minister Angie Motshekga had received all the required input.
In March, Motshekga said she would publish the norms and standards once she re-ceived draft policies from all the provincial education MECs.
Mhlanga said: “There is still no date. The minister is waiting for all the input and we will let you know once they are ready for publication.”
Mollo said the organisation was happy that Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi had made a commitment to improving sanitation.
Even though the department had spent R115 million to renovate 578 toilets between July and September last year, the toilets were still not usable.
The department had since instituted a probe to find out what happened to the money that had been earmarked for maintenance.
“Contractors who have been sent to some of the schools have not done the work. Pupils still have to deal with blocked toilets,” Mollo said.
Equal Education’s Gauteng co-head, Tshepo Motsepe, said: “Billions of rand is spent on school infrastructure. Where is it going? There is some secrecy behind the release of the norms and standards. When we ask about it, we get brushed off.”
Some of the recommendations are that there be a Gauteng-appropriate standard for sanitation, especially for the ratio of pupils per toilet; that the Education Department publicly blacklist contractors who underperform; and to provide a finance model for schools to be able to afford toilet paper, soap and sanitary pads.
Equal Education will host a schools social audit summit on Saturday in Orlando, Soweto, where Lesufi is expected to respond to the findings.
The Star