At least R10 billion is still needed to address the education backlog, says Mpumalanga education MEC, Craig Padayachee.
OVER R10 billion is still needed to address the education backlog in South Africa, warned Mpumalanga education MEC, Craig Padayachee, on Thursday.
Speaking at the opening of a new primary school in Embalenhle near Secunda, he said over R1 billion had been spent on the National School Building programme over the past five years. “Yet it may still require tenfold that amount to meet the backlog in the School Register of Needs,” he explained.
National fuel company, Sasol, contributed R5 million to help address the backlog, particularly in disadvantaged communities, and had allowed for the construction of schools such as the Maphala Gulube Primary School, said Padayachee.
“It is of paramount importance to affectionately appreciate the gigantic role played by the business sector in alleviating the classroom backlogs and ending conditions of physical degradation in our schools,” he added.
The Maphala Gulube Primary School is named after a local community leader who lobbies support for the disabled, aged and pre-primary school children. Padayachee said the community had played an important role in the construction of the school, by providing its builders.
“The principal of community involvement breeds the spirit of ownership of schools and ensures school property against elements of vandalism,” said Padayachee.
The school has 24 classrooms, an administration block and a hall that can be used for both education and community activities. It is expected to open in September and Padayachee urged that schooling involve discussing the scourge of AIDS and HIV in the class. “Let us begin to openly discuss this scourge in our homesteads, schools, workplaces, churches, mosques, stadiums, taxis and shebeens, and take active steps to save our beloved nation from extinction.”
— African Eye News Service, February 4, 2000.