The Department Basic Education continues to unveil state-of-the-art schools every week, built or refurbished at a cost of between R35 million and R50 million.
These schools have been built or refurbished as part of the Accelerated Schools Infrastructure Delivery Initiative or ASIDI, which was established with the purpose of eradicating and replacing schools built, in their entirety, from inappropriate materials and to provide basic services to schools that previously had none.
Since the programme’s inception, the initiative has led to the completion of just over 170 schools out of a targeted 510 around the country with 126 of them situated in the Eastern Cape. Provincial Education Departments (PED’s) continue to deliver services such as water, sanitation, electricity and other resources through the Education Infrastructure Grant (EIG). Although there remains a backlog, progress is being made to address infrastructure challenges.
The schools, which are mainly constructed in rural and underprivileged urban areas, come standard with a Science lab, computer lab, media centre, rain water harvesting tanks, nutrition centre and fully functional administration block with offices and staff room.
It is worth noting that all ASIDI schools meet the minimum norms and standards and, in some cases, exceed these requirements.
A further 126 schools are at various stages of implementation and 54 of those schools will be completed in the course of the 2016/17 financial year.
The ASIDI programme also includes a basic services component over and above the school building programme. To this end, an additional 615 schools have been provided with water, 418 with decent sanitation and 307 with electricity. This programme is on-going.
While a lot of progress has been made, the department is mindful of the fact that a lot still needs to be done ensure that the dignity of learners is restored.
In areas where urgent interventions are needed, the department continues to collaborate with key partners like the Department of Water and Sanitation to ensure that basic services are rolled out to distressed schools.
In schools where water supply remains a challenge, we are implementing immediate interventions like the harvesting of rainwater, deploying mobile water tankers, amongst others, to ensure our learners have drinking water and are able to wash their hands.
For example, out of 5 428 schools in the Eastern Cape, some 55 schools are without an adequate water supply.
To address this, 44 mobile tankers have been deployed while 1 040 borehole wells have been drilled. Rainwater harvesting is currently being implemented at 3 188 schools.
In areas where there are inadequate ablution facilities, we have responded swiftly by deploying VIP toilets to give learners temporary relief.
As at 9 September 2016, the department has deployed 2260 VIP ablution source facilities in the province.
While the requirement is for the department to meet the minimum norms and standards, our aim is to exceed those.
The department has until 29 November 2016 to meet the minimum norms and standards for infrastructure.
While we are mindful of the November 29 deadline, it was always an ambitious target considering the need. It was however a necessary step to jolt the system into action and ensure implementers understand it cannot be business as usual.
Yes, the deadline is important because as a department, we need to set ourselves a target, whether it is ambitious or not, in order to deliver on our promise to our learners.
Enquiries:
Elijah Mhlanga
Cell: 083 580 8275
Troy Martens
Cell: 079 899 3070
