The days of learners receiving their lessons in tumble-down mud schools are nearing an end, with the allocation of R2,7-billion by the national treasury to provinces to eradicate such schools.
Firoz Patel, the education department’s deputy director-general of system planning and monitoring, said this amount will be spent in the 2008/09 medium-term expenditure framework (MTEF) period, in addition to the infrastructure budgets of provincial education departments of R17,3-billion split over the MTEF.
“There are 153 schools countrywide (of which 142 schools are in the Eastern Cape) that are mud structures and there are 4 078 schools with some inappropriate structures (metal sheet and wood),” Patel said. Schools that have the worst structures will be prioritised.
Most provinces will receive a share of the R2,7-billion over the next three years with the exception of the Northern Cape and Mpumalanga where the situation is “not as acute as in Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape”.
Patel said that some schools are made of mud or other inappropriate structures while others have some classrooms, toilets or staff rooms constructed from mud or other inappropriate structures.
He said that provinces have already determined the priorities for 2008/09 and the projects are at a tender phase. “In most cases the schools will be completely rebuilt,” he said.
An implication of the upgrade is that it will create a conducive learning and teaching environment.
Education Minister Naledi Pandor told the the Teacher this week that the project “is very exciting” and that in the past there was poor coordination between the different government departments in addressing school infrastructure upgrades but “national and provincial departments” (of education, public works, water affairs and forestry) were working closely on a plan to eradicate mud-structure schools.
Patel said that since the additional R2,7-billion is targeted at fast-tracking upgrades, the department of public works is coordinating the implementation process provincially. Simultaneously, the department of water affairs is fast-tracking the provision of reliable water supply and decent sanitation at schools with R210-million additional funds for 2008/09. A task team at the national level assists in the coordination of activities in provinces, ensuring “proper identification of the areas of greatest needs, targeting the number of sites needing attention and assisting with delivering the infrastructure”.
Patel said that there is more funding in the pipeline to stamp out all mud school structures. “The funding over the MTEF is incremental and these funds will remain in the foreseeable future as carry through so that all schools can be dealt with in the shortest possible time.”
Russell Wildeman, education analyst at research institute, Idasa, said the education department “has done its bit in presenting data of an acceptable quality to the treasury to leverage the additional funding. This also sets a trend in education funding in that well-presented funding proposals that are backed up by adequate data have a good chance of being financed.”
He said the additional R2,7-billion is aimed at provinces with the most deprived pockets of infrastructure. “This dovetails nicely with the thinking of the education department, which for some time has considered the idea of infrastructure targeting in the worst- affected areas.”
Wildeman said the consolidated spending by the national and provincial governments is significant and must be encouraged. “However, focusing on the most physically deprived areas by zooming in on certain structures (such as mud structures or schooling under trees) may lead to departments taking their eyes off the less visible infrastructure needs in both urban and rural areas.
“Here I am referring to overcrowded schools and areas where there are no school facilities of an adequate standard. One should remind education authorities that such situations require the same amount of investment and time and should not be neglected in this new, targeted attack on infrastructure backlogs.”