Page 3 - ECDoE_Planning and Delivery of School Infrastructure_Status Report_Jan2020

Foreword
Improving the standard of education is a major priority for the South African government. The power of education transforms societies and the lives of individuals, enabling them to become economically active, escape poverty and make a meaningful contribution to our country’s economy and the future success of our nation.
Delivering quality education is dependent on the provision of adequate infrastructure and other resources which is a huge and complex undertaking. Through this publication, we aim to share the many cogs in the infrastructure wheel to create a better understanding of the mechanics behind the schools’ infrastructure programme which is planned and delivered in a complex and ever-changing environment.
In Section A we provide an overview of our achievements by providing an overview of projects that reached completion in 2018-19.
Section B details our construction programme through a listing of current projects as well as the construction progress and status of these projects.
To provide the context, it is important to remember that historically, the Eastern Cape has struggled with an under-resourced, inadequate, and dilapidated education infrastructure that has made it dif cult to provide the required standard of education to all learners in the province. The Eastern Cape Department of Education has also experienced many challenges since the dawn of democracy relating to dysfunctional, small and unviable schools; poor capacity at district level; negative audit outcomes; inability to spend allocated budgets; and continued
backlogs related to provision and maintenance of infrastructure. These historic challenges are huge and cannot and will not be solved overnight even if we can try due to the capacity of the state.
Our mandate is to provide learners with opportunities to become productive and responsible citizens through quality basic education. Quality infrastructure which provides a conducive environment in which quality teaching and learning can take place is a critical success factor to delivering on our mandate. The schools’ infrastructure programme is one of the key initiatives managed by the Department to provide and maintain adequate infrastructure facilities based on a data-driven infrastructure plan for schools and administration facilities, as required by law.
The provision of school infrastructure in the Eastern Cape province is multi-dimensional and must be understood within the framework created to ensure a fully functioning schooling system. The Department embarked on a number of initiatives as part of a 3-year Education System Transformation Plan (ESTP) in 2017 with a focus on a new Service Delivery Model (SDM); the Circuit School Landscape Plan (CSLP), which includes rationalisation and re-alignment of schools; the introduction and institutionalisation of various management systems such as Data Driven Districts (DDD), the enhancement of the Education Facilities Management System (EFMS); and many other interventions, all aimed at supporting and enabling proper resourcing and management of schools.
The Department’s xed assets include over 5 500 operational schools, serving approximately 1,898 million learners. The state of these assets (schools) vary in condition ranging from very poor to excellent. Over the past few years, we’ve made signi cant strides in our infrastructure programme in an ongoing effort to raise the standard of schools within the province. However, these successes cannot be celebrated without highlighting the current backlogs that remain. An estimated R73 billion is required to get schools on par with the minimum uniform norms and standards by 2030 – this translates to approximately R8 billion per annum. An amount of R21 billion is required to address the 7-year backlog for basic services by 2020, this cannot be met!. The Department’s annual allocation has averaged around R1,6 billion per annum. Given the context sketched, it is clear that we require substantial additional funding to provide infrastructure worthy of the children of the Province.
The effective and ef cient performance of infrastructure planning, delivery and monitoring in our province is guided by the Infrastructure Delivery Management System (IDMS). This system provides for integrated planning, budgeting, procurement,
3 | Planning and delivery of Public School Infrastructure - Status Report January 2020