Eradicating massive backlogs in school infrastructure will cost about R40-billion. This represents nearly 40% of the current year’s education budget.
The infrastructural challenges facing thousands of schools emerge from the most comprehensive audit ever done on the physical state of the country’s 25 000 public schools.
The audit, called the National Education Infrastructure Management System (Neims), was completed earlier this year and went to the Cabinet two weeks ago.
The Mail & Guardian has seen details of a presentation the national education department made to Parliament’s portfolio committee on education based partly on the Neims audit. The presentation shows provincial spending on infrastructure has increased from a combined total of about R1,5-billion in 2003/4 to more than R3-billion this financial year, and is projected to exceed R4-billion by 2009/10.
Despite this, current spending targets ‘will not eradicate backlogsâ€, the presentation said, referring to ‘capacity and funding constraintsâ€.While significant progress has been made since 1996 in the provision of basic needs such as electricity, running water and toilets, large numbers of schools still lack these facilities.
There are now 2 064 schools without electricity, compared with 15 560 in 1996. More than 2 100 lack running water (down from 9 103 in 1996), and 1 332 have no toilets (compared with 3 265 in 1996).
The Eastern Cape has more schools than any other province without electricity, water and toilets. Schools with ‘inappropriate structures†— such as those built with mud — have considerably decreased since 1996, from 1 762 to 524. Again, though, the Eastern Cape has more of these than any other province.