Durban — The National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa (Naptosa) believes that all urgency to redress school infrastructure will dissipate if the Department of Basic Education (DBE) is allowed to push through its proposed amendments to the regulations on minimum norms and standards.
DBE Minister Angie Motshekga published, for comment, amendments to the Regulations on the Minimum Norms and Standards for Public School Infrastructure on June 10.
Naptosa executive director Basil Manuel said on an important matter like this, one would have expected the minister to specifically seek the inputs of Naptosa and other role-players in education.
The proposed amendments, which could have a significant impact on the provisioning of school infrastructure were, however, published in the Government Gazette without so much as an indication to Naptosa, or the other role-players, that it had been done.
Manuel accused the department of not having the decency to publish the proposals on its own website. Manuel said this was clearly not the way to build and maintain a stakeholder relationship. He said when the department wishes to obtain Naptosa buy-in on a matter (like the vaccination roll-out process) they liaise with them, “but when they foresee that we might have different views on a matter, they remain mum.”
Manuel said Naptosa became aware of the publication of the proposed amendments which appear to attempt to free the DBE and provincial education departments from some of the obligations that they had imposed on themselves (albeit under pressure from stakeholders) through the 2013 Regulations and in terms of which they could be held accountable.
“Probably because the department and some of the provincial education departments have had a number of judgments delivered against them for failure to adhere to the regulations, the department, through the proposed amendments, now attempts to rid the regulations of the specific time frames for performance,” he said.
Manuel said the proposal is to replace the time frames with a vague and open-ended provision in terms of which all the norms and standards must be planned, prioritised and phased in, in line with the National Development Plan (NDP).
“We acknowledge that the National Development Plan is a commendable document, reference to the plan does not, in our view, assist or enhance the regulations. Which aspects of the NDP must be taken into account?”
Manuel said on school infrastructure, the plan among other things, says:
- Ensure that all schools meet minimum standards for infrastructure and commit to progressively upgrading each school’s infrastructure to meet optimum standards.
- Target no-fee schools when planning infrastructure to compensate for resource deficits in communities.
- There should be well-equipped libraries, laboratories, computer and media centres to ensure that learners in no-fee schools have access to similar learning resources to their counterparts in less poor communities.
- Take learner safety into account when planning infrastructure.
“It is clear that these objectives lack specific time frames, whereas under goals for basic education the plan indicates that infrastructure backlogs should be eliminated so that all schools meet the minimum standards by 2016,” Manuel said.
By 2030, all schools should have high quality infrastructure. Manuel asked how this is going to be helpful in terms of the regulations if the country is almost seven years past the envisaged date for meeting minimum standards.
“Does the proposed amendment only see the open-ended provisions of the NDP as the ones to be adhered to? Another aspect of the regulations that the proposed amendments seek to change, concerns the reporting mechanism for provincial education departments,” he said.
Manuel said the current regulations identify specific areas that provincial departments need to annually report on as far as school infrastructure was concerned.
The proposed amendment removes this and replaces it with a provision requiring provincial departments to annually give a detailed report on plans and progress on the implementation of the norms.
Manuel said without specifics to be addressed in such a report it could become nothing more than an overview in general terms, hiding what is actually transpiring. Naptosa believes that pinning down accountability will become problematic.
Daily News