DECEMBER 2014 B

Official magazine Of equal educatiOn

free copy

•stoppingtheviolence–theKhayelitshacommission•teAcheRshoRtAgesineAsteRncApe•leARninglessons–Mosheshseniorsecondary•noRMsAnDstAnDARDs

longwAlKtoeDucAtion

A THE EQUALIZER

contentsleARninglessons

at the Eastern Cape’s Moshesh Senior Secondary School

teAcheRshoRtAges

in the Eastern Cape

scholARtRAnspoRtAtionA forgotten battle

eDucAtioncRisis

in the Northern Cape’s Joe Morolong Municipality

stoppingtheviolenceFindings of the Khayelitsha Commission

longwAlKtoeDucAtion

noRMsAnDstAnDARDsA Recap

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6

8

11

14

18

20

theeQuAliZeReDitoRiAlDiRectoRYoliswADwAne

EditoR iN ChiEF duMiSA MbuwA

MANAgiNg EditoR SizwE zubENAthi MApApu

SENioR EditoR wiM Louw

gRAphiC dESigNER LouiSE Louw

contRibutoRs:YANA vAN LEEvE duMiSA MbuwA

CRAig ooSthuizEN SANdiLE NdLovu

DECEMBER 2014 B

To say that I am excited to be writing to you for the first time this year would be an undeniable understatement.Editorial notes always tend to be a bit treacherous to write. How do you encapsulate all the hopes and plans in place for the Magazine? And how do you express your desire to uphold the standards, traditions and nuances that make it unique? We are looking forward to giving you a magazine that will serve as a teaching and learning tool for Equalizers, EE members and friends, staff, and our communities at large, and to help people engage on issues surrounding education in South Africa.We hope to keep your eyes and fingertips glued to our pages and your minds captive to the stories.Wherever you are reading this editor’s note from, I hope that you enjoy The Equalizer Magazine. We would like to wish EE’s youth sector a successful national camp and we are looking forward to a new year of campaigning. The struggle must continue.

Yoliswa Dwane

eDitoRiAlnote

Learning LessonsAt the eAstern CApe’s Moshesh

senior seCondAry sChoolby yana van Leeve

2theeQuAliZeR

and subjected to a Disciplinary Hearing. A new acting principal, Ms Mabotle Malete, was appointed in August 2013.

It must be noted that in the beginning the new acting principal was not very recep-tive of the changes EE was implementing at the school. In particular, she did not want youth group meetings to take place at the school and was unwilling to provide information about the conditions at the school. This made it difficult for us to ful-ly understand the existing problems and

In June 2012 equal educatIon(ee)receIved a letter from learners from moshesh senIor secondary school. the learners descrIbed how the school prIncIpal had been absent for more than 9 months, how the teachers arrIved at school late and sometImes drunk and how the school management had completely broken down. the letter resonated a feelIng of hopelessness among the learners. It was the worst case of neglect that we had ever heard of.

Moved by the words of the learners in their letter, EE de-cided to send a task team to investigate their claims and

organise learners and parents to address the problems at the school. Two years later and armed with a court order, there have been some improvements for learners at Moshesh Senior Secondary School. How-ever, present day poverty and unemploy-ment (remnants of the Apartheid legacy) remain deeply entrenched in the history of the village.

This is a reflection of EE’s on-going in-volvement at Moshesh Senior Secondary School, the lessons we are learning in the process and what Equalisers have decided to do next.

Through EE’s intervention, the neglectful principal was removed from his position

Improvement In the leadershIp of

the school

The school’s matric results declined from 30% in 2013, to

18% in 2014

At the eAstern CApe’s Moshesh

senior seCondAry sChool

DeceMbeR20143

how we could assist learners and parents to resolve them.

Through learning about EE’s campaigns, getting to know EE members and seeing our work we were able to build a good working relationship. Through show-ing her that our priority is the rights of learners to ba-sic education we were able to build some trust with the principal and teachers.

We later learned that the acting principal’s scepticism was based on unfounded claims that EE was a front for political parties.

Before EE’s intervention the School Governing Body (SGB) was completely defunct. Allegations of corrup-tion were rife. As a result of the intervention of EE, together with Equal Education Law Centre (EELC), an election of a new SGB took place in May 2013. A func-tional relationship has been established between the chairperson of the SGB and EE. There are still some challenges that the SGB faces. A majority of the SGB is made up of parents of learners who did not attend school or complete matric. As a result, they do not fully understand their legal rights and obligations and are often vulnerable to manipulation. To better this relationship and the effectiveness of SGB, on-going support and training will have to be provided to all members of the SGB.

It is very difficult to learn under these conditions

and the learners have had enough. In response

to very poor schools, a march to the Maluti

Education District was organised by learners

on 30 April 2014. The aim of the march was to

compel the government to implement the court

order that prescribed a number of remedies such

as adequate curriculum planning, the provision

of teachers, a new principal, fixing the hostel, a

catch up plan for the learners that had missed

out on months of work and many more important

instructions.

Aside from appointing an acting principal, none

of these remedies from the court order have been

adhered to. The EELC has been instructed to return

to court to force the government to implement

the court order.

enough is enough!

4theeQuAliZeR

Moshesh Senior Secondary School has grown from 341 learners in 2013 to 471 learners. Although an increase in learners is always welcomed, in this particular in-stance, it is due to poor academic perfor-mance by matriculants. The school’s matric results declined from 30% in 2013, to 18% in 2014. Consequentially, learners who did not pass were retained within the school for another year.

The Eastern Cape Department of Educa-tion has refused to recognise the increased learner enrolment. Therefore, there are not enough teacher posts provided to schools, and there is not enough funding to pay for basic amenities like textbooks, furniture and water.

In some classes there are more than 60 learners because there is only one teacher allocated for that subject. Moreover, that one teacher is expected to teach all 471 learners which includes doing all of the marking, planning, teaching and, in some instances, being in two classes at the same time.

a department In denIal

DeceMbeR20145

shortages in the eastern cape

teacher

by Dumisa mbuwa

thIs year the mInIster of basIc educatIon, angIe motshekga confIrmed that by the end of June 2014, there were 3202 vacancIes gazetted for posts for schools In the eastern cape alone.

6theeQuAliZeR

These posts include 59 vacan-cies for school principals. The common thread is that there are simply not enough teachers

appointed within each school in the East-ern Cape to meet the needs of students. The main problem is not that there are not enough teachers available to educate learners, but that teachers are not being employed where they are needed.

The provincial education department annually establishes teaching posts that need to be funded and allocated to public schools across the province. This process is called post-provisioning and is meant to distribute teachers according to the needs of each school. The needs range from class size, the subjects offered at the school and the poverty levels within a specific area. However, government has failed to appoint permanent teachers, and the teachers who have been appoint-ed are not being paid. There are some schools that are overstaffed and others that are understaffed. Therefore, the post-provisioning system has been mismanaged and poorly implemented.

In order to deal with the shortfall of teach-ers, schools often pay for additional teach-ers through school fees and other initia-tives utilized to raise funds. This option is not available to no-fee schools. This leaves them with very few options to ensure that learners get taught their curriculum. Need-less to say, teachers are bound to leave if they are not being paid.

This problem – which affects mostly poor working class South African children from disadvantaged communities – is an educa-tional catastrophe that has repercussions both inside and outside the classroom. Schools have had to revise their bud-gets and use whatever little funds they have available to pay teachers to educate their learners. This translated into a lack of funds for other aspects of the school

High drop-out rates and low enrolment rates at some schools have resulted in schools closing down. How can learners be expected to matriculate if there are no teachers to help them get there? With a 51.8% pass rate for matriculants in the Eastern Cape, something drastic needs to be done.

In a bid to remedy the situation, the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) launched an opt-in class action in June this year to enforce the implementation of post-provisioning as the best mechanism available to reme-dy the shortage of teachers and to create

a more equitable education system. The legal action was a follow-up to an initial case launched by the LRC in 2012 to have the government im-plement the post-provisioning sys-tem and, most importantly, to pay the salaries of temporary teach-ers. A settlement agreement was reached. However, since then, the government has failed to comply with this order on the grounds that they could not re-allocate teachers

in overstaffed schools to the schools in need. The LRC will thus seek to go

ahead with the court case to force the gov-ernment to implement the system.

What we continue to see in the Eastern Cape is the continuous inefficiencies by the Department of Basic Education. It seems as if it is deliberate negligence

or just an enduring incapability to meet the needs of the most vulnerable mem-

bers of society. Teachers are at the helm of ensuring that learners are educated. We cannot allow for learners to be disad-vantaged by a failing department and it should remain our mission to ensure that the government is held accountable for its failings.

that enhanced the quality of education for learners. For the schools that do not have the funds, they have to rely on teachers essentially working for free to educate the learners.

. . . an educatIonal

catastrophe that has repercussIons

both InsIde and outsIde the classroom

DeceMbeR20147

A forgotten battleScholarTransporTaTion:

for many years, learners across the country have been wIthout adequate transportatIon to school. about 70% of chIldren walk to school.

by Dumisa mbuwa

8theeQuAliZeR

DeceMbeR20149

10theeQuAliZeR

T he lack of transport is one of many challenges the South Af-rican education system faces. Equal Education and the Equal

Education Law Centre spoke to learners and principals in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal and heard their stories. Many learners have to walk more than 16km to get to school and some learners walk up to 30km per day. In other areas, learners have to traverse difficult terrain like rivers and hills in order to receive their basic right to education. Not only are learn-ers exposed to long walking distances but they are often vulnerable to sexual and physical exploitation, bad weather con-ditions, and stray dogs. The consequence has been high levels of non-attendance, poor school performance, and high learner drop-out rates. This violates the learner’s basic right to education as enshrined in s29 of the Constitution.

On a recent visit to the Eastern Cape by Equal Education, a conversation with one principal revealed that longer walking dis-tances have a significant effect on learner performance, and that learner perfor-mance decreases as the distance learn-ers have to walk increases. The principal’s observation was that the performance for learners who moved closer to school dra-matically improved. This observation was echoed by the principals in KwaZulu-Na-tal – walking long distances to school has clear effects on learner performance. The Department of Basic Education’s Annual Report 2013/2014 only mentioned the issue of learner transport as a passing ref-erence. The burning question is why this issue has not garnered the attention it de-serves.

A national policy on scholar transport has been in the pipe works for over 5 years. In the interim the mechanisms that were put in place to provide learner transport have been ineffective. The Road Traffic Man-agement Corporation (RTMC), a law en-forcement agency of the Minister of Trans-port Dipuo Peter, had introduced several

programs to assist learners. One of these initiatives included the provision of bicy-cles and head gear to schools, for learners identified as in need. 95,000 bicycles have been distributed since 2006 and another 21,000 bicycles are to be allocated over the next 3 years.

Although the initiative was innovative, it has been poorly implemented. A recent visit by Equal Education to the education districts of Dutywa, Libode and Mount Fletcher in the Eastern Cape revealed that none of these areas had received adequate transport for learners. In these areas, learn-ers often have to walk a total of 16km per day to get to and from school. Equal Educa-

the school have nowhere to turn but to the government to ensure that this basic need is met.

The South African Human Rights Commis-sion found that the Eastern Cape’s Educa-tion and Transport Departments violated a learners’ right to basic education by failing to provide them with transport to school. The Commission also found that the in-ability for the Department to provide sub-sidized transport also violated the duty to realise the best interests of the learners in terms of s28 of the Constitution.

The National Scholar Transport Policy, which is in its final draft, will regulate the provision of learner transport. The fi-nal draft will require the Department of Transport and the Department of Basic Education to create an interdepartmental committee with officials from provincial departments. The department would be tasked with implementing the policy and providing progress report to Ministers and MECs. The policy seeks to ensure that transportation is available for all learners in need.

With nothing more than a final draft poli-cy to look to, the government needs to be compelled to have the national policy on scholar transport implemented. Without a proper framework and guidance the policy would provide, there can be no real way to hold the various stakeholders accountable for the delivery of this service to schools across the country.

tion was informed that some of the schools had received bicycles but they had been condemned due to non-maintenance, age and dilapidation. The visit also revealed that some learners dropped out of school after grade 7 because they were unable to afford to travel to their nearest secondary school. What was of even greater concern is that the schools that made the effort to apply for assistance were turned away due to lack of funding. Some schools in KwaZulu-Natal also received bicycles, but these soon broke down on the rough ter-rain – learners and principals complained about the poor quality and a lack of funds for bike maintenance. With the existing mechanisms and programs in place failing to provide adequate support to schools,

they are often vulnerable to

sexual and physIcal

exploItatIon, bad weather

condItIons, and stray dogs

DeceMbeR201411

In June thIs year, nearly 17 000 students In the Joe morolong munIcIpalIty In kuruman were prevented from goIng to school by theIr parents and communIty resIdents for almost 4 months.

Education crisisin the Northern Cape’s

Joe Morolong Municipality

The Kuruman community was protesting for a network of gravel roads connecting their villages and national roads

leading to towns be tarred for easy access. Residents resorted to depriving children of their right to education in order to leverage government to attend to their demands.

The fundamental question is: Can this tactic be justified? How can parents use their children to fight their own battles and compromise their constitutional right to

education? The caricature we are left with is of angry parents, uneducated children and a community that is despondent due to lack of service delivery.

Kuruman was once a global hub for the production and export of asbestos – making South Africa responsible for 97% of the world’s crocidolite and 100% of all amosite production. Some of the mines were shut down in the 1990’s and the last was closed in 2002. Eventually the entire industry was banned in 2008. The town was built on asbestos and, as a result, it has a history of lung cancer, mesothelioma and asbestosis among mineworkers since the inception of the industry in the 1800’s.

Nearly 30% of all mesothelioma cases are related to environmental exposure, mostly

in the Northern Cape area. Asbestos became incorporated into all parts of the areas infrastructure, including material used for building houses, schools and in the gravel that is used on many of the roads in the area. Enormous quantities of fibre have also settled into gardens and water sources, with winds carrying fibre from the mines into the town area, and surrounding townships.

More than 70% of reported environmental cases affected women and children. The World Health Organization estimates that 90 000 people die from asbestos related illnesses each year, while South Africa reports approximately 200 cases each year. Even today, the impact of asbestos in the mining regions of the Northern Cape is evident. Roads are the gateways

by Dumisa mbuwa

A THE EQUALIZER

for economic development especially for an underdeveloped community. Therefore, the necessity of having to build proper roads in this area is of paramount importance.

This is where the communities were coming from; a position which those who were fundamentally against the strike did not consider or even bring to the fore when scathing the residents. Preventing children from going to school to get the attention of the government should be condemned emphatically. Particularly when 465 matriculants from 50 schools could not attend classes at the most crucial stage of their school careers. However, what is to be done when residents have exhausted every avenue to make their concerns heard? Should they march to the municipal council? What happens when

the municipal speaker, a custodian of the needs of the community, constructs a brand new stretch of road that goes past his own home? In these circumstances, do residents not have a right to be angry? Are there not any merits in resorting to mindless or even illegal alternatives when the very institutions which were created to serve them continue to blatantly ignore the needs of the community?

Perhaps in the context of education, in its conceptual sense, there is a separation between the child, the community, the school and the infrastructure all these three entities utilize. Perhaps there is no relationship between them at all and therefore the actions of the community were not justified. On the other hand, are not all these entities interwoven; when one is defunct, the others stand the risk of being dysfunctional.

What needs to be established here is that an education system does not exist or function in a vacuum. It only works if there is: a) a supportive community and, b) an environment where the physical process of going to school is not difficult or in this case, perilous. The schools that are situated in areas where there is no clean

12theeQuAliZeR

DECEMBER 2014 B

or running water or proper sanitation are bound to have children who will suffer from diarrhoea, malnutrition, and other chronic illnesses which could be prevented if the right mechanisms were put in place. Unfortunately, this is a common reality for many schools in Eastern Cape.

Therefore, the problem in the North West should not be viewed as senseless residents who do not prioritize the education of their own children. The simple problem is that the government (or the municipal speaker in this case) failed to serve the poor and vulnerable members of the community, who were then forced to take drastic measures to have their voices heard. The residents demand for proper road infrastructure has constitutional merits just as the demand to have the children sent back to school equally has constitutional merit. The government needs to recognize that the poor quality of these roads has affected all facets of the community.

The call to end this protest was without a doubt a matter of absolute priority and the government finally took the predicament seriously. On 22 September this year, it was reported that the residents agreed to let learners return to school on the condition that construction of the roads commences and we are seeing this process taking place currently.

It should be no coincidence that the cornerstone of protests in our country is lack of basic service delivery by municipalities. Therefore, a valuable and perhaps clichéd lesson should be learnt by municipal officials: to serve yourself at

the expense of the community is not only unjust, but is enough to trigger an outrage in the future. Education is not only a constitutional right in this country, but it is a divine right anywhere. Indeed, it should be treated this way and all mechanisms required to make this right a reality, should be put in place to ensure that this right may not be paralyzed as we see it today.

the sImple problem Is that the government faIled to serve the poor and

vulnerable members of the

communIty

DeceMbeR201413

A THE EQUALIZER

Stoppingtheviolence:FinDingsoFthecoMMission

crime scene dO nOt crOss crime scene dO nOt crOss crime scene dO nOt crOss crime scene dO nOt crOss crime scene dO nOt crOsscrime scene dO nOt crOss crime scene dO nOt crOss crime scene dO nOt crOss crime scene dO nOt crOss crime scene dO nOt crOss

“Gangsters would enter the school through the fencing and attack learners. Many different people were stabbed. Eight learners in my school were killed in that year [2007]. Pumlani, one of my classmates, was stabbed to death in our class. We were locked in the class and the ambulance arrived too late. We were sent home for the day but received no trauma counselling. Teachers and learners lived in fear and panic that year. I cannot understand to this day how I passed that year because it was almost impossible to concentrate on my studies. I can say that this is true for most of my fellow-learners”

14theeQuAliZeR

by craig oosthuizen

DECEMBER 2014 B

Stoppingtheviolence:

crime scene dO nOt crOss crime scene dO nOt crOss crime scene dO nOt crOss crime scene dO nOt crOss crime scene dO nOt crOsscrime scene dO nOt crOss crime scene dO nOt crOss crime scene dO nOt crOss crime scene dO nOt crOss crime scene dO nOt crOss

T hose are the words of Thandokazi Njamela, a young activist who testified before the O’Regan-Pikoli Commission of Inquiry. In

2014, the Commission sat at Lookout Hill in Khayelitsha to listen to the experiences of people living and working in Khayelitsha, and to investigate allegations that the police were inefficient and had lost the trust of the community. Over a five month period the Commission examined more than 50,000 pages of evidence and heard the testimony of 85 community members, police officers, academics, social workers and activists.

Many young people, including Thandokazi, told the Commission that they do not feel safe in the street, at school, or even at home. People are exposed to violence at a young age. In Khayelitsha, most deathsinvolving persons between the ages of 15 to 19 are the result of a murder. Nearly half of those aged between 10 and 19 have witnessed a stabbing; a third have witnessed a shooting; a third have witnessed community violence, including vigilante attacks; two out of five youths have been robbed; and one out of eight

youths has been assaulted. In her testimony before the Commission, Dr Debbie Kaminer, who specialises in the effects of violence on youth, said “Children in Khayelitsha experience violence as a condition, a condition of living, rather than as a single event that they experience and then have to recover from”. She went on to say that children often end up being witnesses, victims and perpetrators of violence in the community.

Much of the violence between and against youth in Khayelitsha is driven by gangs. One mother testified that children are dropping out because they do not feel safe walking to and from school. Her son quit school after witnessing attacks on fellow learners, and the stabbing to death of his friend by gang members. In a written statement to the Commission, she said “Our children are now denied their right to education because they are not being protected from the gangsters”.

Research by Dr Catherine Ward found that young people often join gangs because of a lack of opportunities, such as jobs and after school activities. She said, “In this

DeceMbeR201415

16theeQuAliZeR

context, gangs offer a sense of belonging and perhaps the possibility of a future”. Dr Ward testified that when gang violence erupts police “should immediately act on it, otherwise […] if you drive a van down the road and passed crimes that are happening, you give criminals a very clear message that it’s okay for them to do that”. Mr Mahlutshana, Principal of Chris Hani Secondary School in Khayelitsha, testified that gang culture is destabilising schools. He said that a clear strategy needs to be developed by the police and the community to “eliminate” this culture.

The Commission found “the emergence of youth gangs in Khayelitsha to be a grave concern that requires immediate attention from a range of institutions.” It agreed with Mr Mahlutshana in stating that the police do not have a clear strategy to deal with gangs.

A recommendation was made for a task team to be established by the provincial

1. Keep children safe in school;2. Keep children safe while walking to and from school;3. Provide afterschool activities for children;4. Make sure schools track who is not attending school;5. Develop programmes to help youth who are at risk of joining gangs;6. Make sure police are visibly patrolling around gang hotspots and schools;7. Make sure a standard approach is followed when arresting or prosecuting young people; and8. Improve crime intelligence on gang practices so that police can effectively reduce gang violence.

strategic plan frOm the task team

Department of Community Safety to address the problem. The task team should include a range of institutions, including the police; the National Prosecuting Authority; the Education Department; NGOs working with youth; School Principals and Governing Bodies; and experts in childhood development and human rights.

much of the vIolence between and

agaInst youth In khayelItsha Is drIven by

gangs

DECEMBER 2014 B

On 15 September 2014 the MEC for Community Safety, Dan Plato, announced the establishment of the task team. Participation in this task team should be extended to organisations like Equal Education and the Social Justice Coalition that work with youth and learners in Khayelitsha. According to the General Secretary of Equal Education, Brad Brockman, he is not aware of any invitation being extended to Equal Education. The

Commission has given a deadline of 25 March 2015 for a strategic plan to be developed and implemented.

Mr Plato also announced the investment of R500,000 on a Youth, Safety and Religious programme for the December holidays. It was not clear what the programme involved, or what was being spent on after-school activities for the rest of the year.

The Commission found violence was making people in Khayelitsha feel “unsafe in their homes, schools and public spaces”. Youth often bear the brunt of this violence, with their rights to life, security, movement and education being severely challenged on a daily basis. Local, provincial and national government needs to work closely with the police and community organisations to tackle this problem and improve safety for everyone.

DeceMbeR201417

18theeQuAliZeR

Many young learners in Nqutu, KwaZulu-Natal know this well. To make sure they realize their dreams everyday they walk

for hours to receive an education that may help them have a brighter future. Sizwe wakes up at 4am every day to get ready to go school. He baths, gets dressed, helps his siblings get ready, eats and at 6am leaves home for school.

When he leaves for school in winter it is cold and dark. He is accompanied by some of his friends on the two hour walk to school. This has been his routine for the past four years. He never makes the mistake of being absent from school. Although he’s used to it, he is glad that this will be his last year.

Sizwe had to choose which high school to attend after passing grade 7 – Dumizulu or Mangaliso high schools, but both are four hour round-trip walks. This is the reality of many other learners in this area.

To EducaTionambItIon wIthout educatIon Is

lIke a boat on dry land

In summer though it’s better. It is warm and the sun rises early. Even with the many problems of staying in a village and going to a rural school you cannot help but fall in love with Nqutu.

The reality for these learners though is that a two-hour-walk to school does not give them a chance to perform optimally. They still may be late and there will be a teacher waiting at the gate to punish them with a stick or forcing them to do frog jumps or pushups. By the time they go to class these learners are so exhausted the teacher standing in front of the class is just a bad, angry mime artist. The day cannot be productive.

The chores don’t end after the long walk home either. These learners do not have the luxury of helpers or five pairs of shirts and pants. Upon getting home they have to wash their uniforms, collect and chop wood, and go and herd the cattle that has

Long Walkby sanDiLe nDLovu

been wondering all day in fields. Finally, by 8pm they get a chance to rest. There is little time or energy left for studies.

Where I come from learners are conti-nuously faced with a stark choice: staying in school or quitting. So many obstacles increase the chances of failure.

Extra classes help, but that means staying a bit longer at school, leaving the school at 4 or 5pm. For female learners this increases the chances of being raped. Learners scatter all over to go to their homes. Some do not have anyone to go home with. There are no streetlights or security guards, and there is certainly no car to pick you up at the gate from school.

Many girls in grade 12 end up dropping out because they are falling behind in school and missing the extra classes. In one of the schools in which I organise, the matric class merely has 21 learners. Yet in

DECEMBER 2014 B

grade 8 there are over 135 learners. The remainder have all dropped out between grade 8 and grade 12. The dropout rate may be attributed to many things but one reason is that many learners are simply tired of walking.

The struggle for equal education is one the whole country must take seriously. It’s the only way we can build a skilled nation. It’s the only way young people can realize their dreams. It’s is not fair that in 2014 learners must walk two hours to get their education when others have the privilege of crossing the road and arriving at school. The learners in my village may never break the cycle of poverty because they shall

have never been given the chance to receive a decent education.

Government needs to take the education of learners in rural areas seriously. This means making sure learners safety is prioritised by making sure there is more patrolling on the routes learners use. Schools must also be built with the intention of reducing commuting times. And the long term goal must be to provide reliable transport for learners to and from school.

the realIty for these

learners though Is that a two-hour-walk to

school does not gIve them

a chance to perform

optImally

DeceMbeR201419

20theeQuAliZeR

The regulations relating to minimum uniform norms and standards for public school infrastructure require that all

schools in the country would have to meet a specific standard in order for them to provide a stable learning environment for learners.

Prior to the norms and standards being established, there was no consensus and no basic norms that the government had to adhere to. As a result, schools that did not have basic facilities could not compel the government to act. Therefore, these norms and standards are set to ensure that all schools in the country provide a stable learning environment for learners.

& StandardS:

The norms and standards introduced fundamental changes – like a cap on the number of learners per classroom, fully-equipped libraries, running water, electricity, internet, working toilets, sports facilities and safe and secure schools. The government has been given 10 years to ensure that all schools have basics such a water, electricity, and sanitation while the deadline for equipping schools with libraries, sport facilities and laboratories is set at 17 years. This effectively gives the government until the year 2030 to implement all basic norms and standards in all schools across the country.

The National Education Infrastructure Management System (NEIMS) Report of

October 2014 states that of the 23,740 public schools: 1,131 have no electricity, 604 have no water supply, 11,033 are using pit latrine toilets and a further 18,301 do not have libraries.

In comparing the 2011 and the 2014 NEIMS report, there is a 4% drop in the total number of schools on the database. The Free State, Eastern Cape and North West see the largest reduction in the number of schools. Although the 2014 NEIMS report shows that more schools have access to water, ablution facilities and electricity, twice as many schools are dependant on unreliable sources of power. NEIMS 2014 shows that more schools have access to municipal flush toilets but in provinces

A RecapnormS

a mIlestone In south afrIca’s educatIon was reached on the 29 november 2013, when the basIc educatIon mInIster angIe motshekga announced legally bIndIng norms and standards for the Infrastructure for all schools In the country.

by Dumisa mbuwa

DeceMbeR2014

& StandardS:

like the Eastern Cape and Kwazulu-Natal, the number of pit latrines has increased despite the number of schools in the provinces decreasing.

It is hard to discern whether this constitutes progress as access to these facilities has increased but the reduction in the total number of schools may inflate the gains made. These statistics illustrate how critical this national plan is for the education system and its proper implementation is paramount.

Although the regulations represent a tremendous victory for learners around the country, the implementation of these regulations is a challenge. One of the unintended consequences of the regulations is that they will not be applicable to schools that are scheduled to be built or improved in terms of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework period ( 2013/2014- 2014/2015 and 2014/2015 - 2015/2016). This means that the government can exclude these schools from the national plan that the regulations introduced and are therefore not legally binding to these schools.

At this stage it is unclear how exactly the established norms and standards will be funded despite the existence of programs such as the Accelerated School Infrastructure Delivery Initiative (ASIDI) and the Education Infrastructure Grant (EIG).

The ASIDI program was established to remove unsuitable schools and replace them with adequate schools with basic services like water, electricity and sanitation between 2011/2012 and 2013/2014 financial years. 496 mud schools were set to be replaced by the end of the 2013/2014

financial year. However, none of this has come to fruition. The first reason is the significant budget cuts for the program. It had initially been allocated R8.2 million but the budget was revised in the 2013/2014 to R1.955 billion due to under expenditure of the initial budget. The second reason is the lack of delivery on transforming 496 mud schools. Only 49 schools set for completion in the 2011/2012 financial year were completed before the end of the 2013/2014 financial year. 150 schools set for completion in the 2014/2015 financial year, are currently at different stages of completion. Some of the reasons proffered for the lack of completion of the schools was inclement weather, difficult terrain and non-performing contractors.

However, the lack of transparency of the EIG program makes it difficult for it to be monitored and be held accountable for non-performance.

Although the ASIDI and EIG reflect a positive start for refining schools in our country, the lack of accountability, under-expenditure and under-performance warrants enough concern for these programs to be revised. These norms and standards represent a significant undertaking by the government to reform schools across the country but, without foundational elements in place, they will not be realised. Earlier in the year Equal Education organised a conference where civil society strategized how they would monitor the implementation of these regulations. The resounding message of the conference was that the onus would fall in the hands of civil society to ensure that government fulfils its duties.

In terms of the Regulations released on 29 November 2013, a Member of the Executive Council must provide the Minister of Basic Education with detailed plans on the manner in which the norms and standards are to be implemented within 12 months after the publication of the regulations. In a media statement released from the Department of Basic Education on 28 November 2014, the Department stated that it had received plans from all provinces and the Minister will consider the plans before making them public.

In the meantime, it will be up to civil society to continue to put pressure on the government to deliver on their promises.

the government has untIl 2030

to Implement all basIc norms and

standards

The government has yet to address these challenges and meet the established targets.

The EIG program is used to supplement infrastructure programs in provinces. It is used by provincial departments to help with the implementation of targets. After examining the expenditure trends of three provinces, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, Equal Education found that all these provinces were spending their allocated budgets well. The budget trends show better expenditure by provinces than that of the ASIDI.

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equal education (ee) is amovement of learners, parents, teachers andcommunity members working for quality and equality in south Africaneducation, throughanalysisandactivism.eeofficesare inKhayelitsha,capetownandthembisa,Johannesburg.

schoolinFRAstRuctuReSince 2008 EE has been campaigning for minimum Norms and Standards for School infrastructure. on 11 July 2013, the bhisho high Court made an order-by-consent compelling Minister Motshekga to publish binding Norms & Standards for School infrastructure, by 30 November 2013. binding Norms & Standards will set the basic level of infrastructure every school must meet in order to function properly. this would include toilets, running water, electricity, libraries, safe classrooms, sports fields and perimeter security.

wheReDoesMYMoneYgowheniDonAtetoee?• Research into key issues in the education sector such as school infrastructure,

textbooks, budget analysis and sanitation

• developing high school learners to become leaders and change-makers in their schools

• Running of our post-matric leadership programme that gives young people the opportunity to gain new skills and become an intern at EE

• train librarians and stock new libraries in township schools.

When Ordinary people donate small amounts it helps us to become

financially sustainable

Asalwayswelookforwardtoyour

feedbackandsuggestionsinfo@equaleducation.org.za

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