Cape Town – Six years after the Minimum
Uniform Norms and Standards for Public School Infrastructure was signed into law by Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga, Equal Education (EE) has lamented the fact that research showed 169 schools were still entirely without an electricity supply and 582 schools were reliant on generators.
The organisation said the countdown to the legally binding 2020 deadline of the norms and standards had begun.
By next year, all schools in South Africa must be provided with an adequate supply of classrooms, electricity, water and toilets, perimeter security (fencing, burglar bars, security cameras) and electronic connectivity (internet, phones, intercoms).
EE said that when its #FixOurSchools campaign began to get Motshekga to adopt the norms and standards, 3 544 schools had no access to electricity and 2 402 had no access to water.
A further 804 schools had an
unreliable electricity supply and
2 611 schools had an unreliable water supply.
“According to data that is currently publicly available, provided by the Department of Basic Education... at 3 710 schools, plain pit latrines are the only form of toilets (plain pit latrines are banned in terms of the norms and standards) 169 schools are entirely without electricity supply and 582 are reliant on generators for electricity.
“In addition,170 schools have absolutely no electronic connectivity, approximately one-third of schools have access to the internet for administrative purposes and approximately one-fifth have access to the internet for teaching and learning,” EE said.
Department spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said a lot of work still had to be done. “We acknowledge that the basic education sector faces a myriad of challenges, and one of them is the provision of school infrastructure.
“A lot of progress has been made to provide schools with appropriate resources in terms of the norms and standards however, there is a lot of work still to be done,” he said.
“Provinces have had to review the approach to the delivery of schools infrastructure due to the migration of people from certain areas to the cities. Some of the schools were money was spent are now facing closure.
“The poor economic conditions have also led to budget cuts, which have and will continue to have a huge impact on the delivery of services, especially school infrastructure.
“When the norms and standards were promulgated, there was already a huge backlog without funding,” he said.
The minister appointed a new deputy director-general, who started on November 1, to accelerate delivery.
Mhlanga said she also appointed a director who started four months ago.
“Building capacity is part of measures put in place to ensure that there is improvement in the rate of delivery to keep up with the targets,” said Mhlanga.