It is not true to say that mud schools exist only in the Eastern Cape, as reported by the Department of Basic Education. There are also some in the North West Province, the Chairperson of the Select Committee on Education and Recreation Ms Wendy Makgate told the department’s Deputy Director-General, Mr Paddy Padayachie in Parliament on Wednesday.
She was questioning the figure of 496 mud schools provided by the Department of Basic Education, which refers to them as “inappropriate structures”.
“My home is in the North West. I am a political activist there. There are schools that fit the definition of ‘inappropriate schools’ there, so it is incorrect to say there are none in other provinces,” Ms Makgate insisted.
Mr Padayachie briefed the Committee on progress on the department’s schools building programme, known as the Accelerated Schools Infrastructure Delivery Initiative (ASIDI). The purpose of the ASIDI is to eradicate “inappropriate schools” and to provide water, sanitation and electricity to schools.
There has been no progress on delivering the first 50 schools targeted in this programme in the 2012/13 financial year, according to Mr Padayachie. “Although four schools have been completed, we have not yet handed one school to beneficiaries, so we cannot make an announcement as the department. But that does not mean nothing is happening on the ground,” he told the Committee.
The blame for not meeting the 20 August target date to complete and deliver the structures lay with a lack of proper roads, difficult access and problems in obtaining building supplies.
Mr Padayachie said the department had revised its approach, as part of ASIDI implementation programme. In the past it had relied on agents to do the work and now it was increasing its own capacity, to ensure better control of projects.
Members of the Committee told Mr Padayachie that so long as no progress could be reported, the impression was created that the department was not serious about the delivery of appropriate schools. “So long as you outsource the programme, delivery is still far away,” they said.
Ms Makgate said the Committee planned an oversight visit to the provinces to see the work described by Mr Padayachee in progress. “We must see (for ourselves) what you say is happening in the provinces,” Ms Makgate said.
