By Akani Nkuna
Poor sanitation is a reality for many schools in South Africa. In an effort to deal with this situation, including pit latrines, Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube has launched the Safe Schools App.
It is a digital platform that aims to improve the safety and hygiene of schools, ensuring a healthier environment for pupils to learn and thrive.
“What we are doing here today is testament to the power of technology, collaboration and a shared commitment to address the challenges facing our education system,” Gwarube said on Monday.
“The Safe Schools App is more than an application. It is a bold statement to resolve to eliminate unsafe sanitation facilities in schools, and we do so with transparency, with efficiency and accountability.”
The minister told reporters that the app, which was developed by Vodacom, would achieve three key objectives, including providing real time tracking and monitoring of progress to eliminate pit toilets.
“The app includes a dynamic heat map that will allow [the department] to track the progress of pit toilet eradication across the country. This feature ensures that government has access to real time information about our efforts [to deal with the] backlog,” Gwarube said.
In the past, stakeholders such as the SA Human Rights Commission, have raised concerns that the data on pit toilets may be incomplete or unreliable.
“So, this Safe Schools App empowers communities to report any remaining pit toilets in the areas, helping us to close those gaps and ensure that every school is accounted for,” said Gwarube.
The minister said the app could eventually be used as a tool to monitor and track other critical initiatives, such as the National School Nutrition Programme, infrastructure development and the distribution of learning and teaching materials.
“We will be integrating these functions. The app enhances our ability to manage resources effectively and respond swiftly to emerging challenges…,” she said.
“We have a vision that someday we will be able to track the delivery of nutritious meals in our schools, the delivery of textbooks to our schools, and that teachers and principals may be able to report when things have not happened directly on the app… We want to use technology to improve the education sector,” she said.
Hundreds of schools still have pit toilets. The department’s deadline to eradicate pit latrines is 31 March 2025.
INSIDE EDUCATION
