Page 15 - Eastern Cape Education

The Department held its last quarterly meeting for the year with Equal Education (EE) to provide a platform for the discussion of infrastructure related matters at its head of ce in Zwelitsha on 6 December 2019.
The purpose of these engagements is to enhance the relationship between the parties to ensure transparent and responsive communication to infrastructure issues raised by citizens.
The meeting was opened by the Superintendent General in which he expressed his appreciation for the role that Equal Education continue to play in advocating for the constitutional rights of learners to quality education and infrastructure.
Several ongoing issues were raised by EE in relation to the state of schools visited by the organisation. These relate mainly to unsafe structures and inadequate sanitation. In addition the organisation also raised their concerns regarding the lack of consequence management for non-performance of Implementing Agents and sub-contractors.
The Physical Resources Management team provided an overview of the myriad of factors that impact on the delivery of infrastructure such as the norms and standards backlogs; the School Rationalisation and Realignment Programme and planning infrastructure at a circuit level; provision of hostels; and budget constraints.
November 2020 marks the anniversary of the 7-year norms and standards in terms of which the education system needs to ensure that every school is provided with suf cient classrooms (ordinary and Grade R); security (fencing and burglar bars); basic services (water, electricity and sanitation); and elimination of inappropriate structures (classrooms and ablutions).
The Department stressed the very real issue of lack of funds in realistically addressing the 7-year backlogs which currently stand at R73 billion (at present day values).
The meeting ended on a high note with parties agreeing to look at avenues of strengthening their ongoing relationship and building trust. The next meeting is scheduled to take place in the rst quarter of 2020.
15 | December 2019 | Sakh’isidima news