The National Policy on an Equitable Provision of an Enabling School Physical Teaching and Learning Environment

The Department of Basic Education has gazetted the National Policy on an Equitable Provision of an Enabling School Physical Teaching and Learning Environment. The policy was developed through financial support from the Norwegian Trust Fund managed by the World Bank and was done through a consultative process with the relevant stake holders which included other key departments such as National Treasury and Public Works, curriculum experts at the national and provincial levels, educators, school governing bodies, physical planners at all levels, experts in the built industry and the Council of Education Ministers (CEM).

The National Policy on an Equitable Provision of an Enabling School Physical Teaching and Learning Environment is published in terms of section 3(4) of the National Education Policy Act, 1996 (Act No 27 of 1996). Overall, the aim of the policy is to regulate and formalise the provision of school infrastructure and to provide guidelines towards an equitable provision of an enabling physical teaching and learning environment for all learners in South Africa, indicate clear roles and responsibilities of all role players and unify accountability in the provision of school infrastructure.

Key aspects of the policy are:

* Development of the minimum norms and standards for school infrastructure to ensure equity in the provisioning of school infrastructure
* The establishment of the nationally standardised criteria and procedures for the identification and prioritization of the teaching and learning environment.

The Department of Basic Education (DBE) will adopt a planned development approach to the physical teaching and learning environment. The national plan will be prepared on a long, medium and short term basis. It will set national and provincial strategic objectives and targets to be achieved within each plan period.

All new construction and extensions will follow prototype space norms and designs. To the extent possible, major rehabilitation will integrate key elements of the standard designs. Standardised menu of prototypes will be used to create cost maps and to guide and where necessary, control construction costs.

The Department of Basic Education (DBE) will be actively engaged in an approach to apply alternative funding mechanisms for school teaching and learning environments.

The DBE will intensify the devolution of responsibility, authority and accountability for the provision of school infrastructure to the lowest feasible level in the education system which is the school.

The procurement of all elements of the physical teaching and learning environment will comply with the standardised sector-specific procurement procedures that will be developed by the DBE.

The policy will ensure that schools are established and located where they are needed most and also to ensure full utilisation of existing schools. It will also lead to the creation of cost maps to guide and where necessary to control construction costs. The policy seeks to redress the imbalances of the past with regard to school facilities and resources and also to increase access to schools for all learners. It also seeks to transform the environment into an enabler for effective implementation of sector policies, effective curricula delivery and effective teaching and learning processes.

On implementation, the policy will ensure equity in the provision of the physical teaching and learning environment.

The document is available from government printers, Gazette No 33283 and from the website of the Department of Education, http://www.education.gov.za.

For more information contact:
Granville Whittle
Tel: 012 357 3757
Cell: 072 148 9575

Issued by: Department of Basic Education
14 June 2010
Source: Department of Education (http://www.education.gov.za)

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