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Their progress report was allegedly copied and pasted from a previous one, but it was filed with the country’s basic education overseer anyway.
This was the report allegedly filed by the head of the education department in the Eastern Cape, Themba Kojana, to the national department of basic education last year.
It detailed progress made in implementing the law compelling provincial departments to demolish unsafe schools and rebuild them.
The fault was picked up by Equal Education – the civil society group that successfully forced Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga, after a marathon battle, to sign norms and standards into law after it scrutinised provincial progress reports to ascertain whether they would meet deadlines to ensure safe, fenced schools with toilets, water, electricity and sports facilities, among other things.
However, the Eastern Cape wasn’t alone, as the group also found questionable information in similar reports from Limpopo, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape.
Leanne Jansen-Thomas, spokesperson for Equal Education, said that not a single province met the 2016 deadline for enforcing the eradication of unsafe schools.
Last Tuesday, pupils affiliated with Equal Education, who are referred to as “equalisers”, protested at Motshekga’s office in Pretoria to vent their frustrations about noncompliance.
Jansen-Thomas said the protest allowed the public to hear the voices of young people and their experiences in public schools, adding that the protest was relevant because it happened during Youth Month.
“There is renewed energy and urgency to address the dire state of school infrastructure; to ensure pupils are provided with safe and reliable transport; to ensure that schools are safe spaces that are free from violence and that classes are not overcrowded; and that, as a country, we pay greater attention to foundation-phase learning.
“This protest placed these priorities prominently in the public discourse. Minister Motshekga and provincial education MECs can no longer hide from the truth of pupils’ realities,” Jansen-Thomas said.
She said that, in an attempt to push for a resolution of its demands, Equal Education was in the process of meeting with various provincial MECs, their departments and provincial legislatures.
The group also picked up that:
. The Limpopo report contained conflicting data compared with information registered in other government systems;
. The Gauteng report did not provide budget information on the replacement of the 29 schools built using asbestos;
. The KwaZulu-Natal report cited that there were 1 377 schools with plain pit latrines – the same number that was provided in the province’s 2017 report; and
. The Western Cape report stated that its department had not managed to eradicate the backlog of schools built using inappropriate material.
Sam Makondo, spokesperson for the Limpopo education department, said they would access the other alleged reports and compare contents, and that Motshekga’s department would liaise with them about issues raised by Equal Education.
Steve Mabona, the spokesperson for Gauteng’s education department, said they were committed to eradicating asbestos by 2023 and were willing to meet with Equal Education about its concerns.
Bronagh Hammond of the Western Cape’s education department said they were doing their best to meet norms and standards, but had to operate within a budget that provided for the running of the entire department in an environment where pupil numbers were increasing but the budget was not.
Muzi Mahlambi of KwaZulu-Natal’s education department said the matter was receiving attention and a budget had been set aside this financial year to build toilets.
The Eastern Cape failed to respond.
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