Equal Education (EE) and the Equal Education Law Centre (EELC) have demanded that Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube explain why school capacity regulations remain unpublished 10 days after a court-ordered deadline.

In a joint statement on Monday, the organisations called for the immediate publication of the final Minimum Uniform Norms and Standards for School Capacity, saying that continued delays were leaving learners in overcrowded classrooms without adequate space and resources.

The deadline expired on 9 October, three years after the Gauteng High Court ordered the Minister of Basic Education to develop and publish the regulations in a case involving the South African Teachers’ Union (SAOU).

“This court order was not a suggestion; it was a directive that must be complied with. Learners cannot continue to wait while they are forced to learn in overcrowded classrooms without the space and resources they need,” the organisations said.

The Department of Basic Education (DBE) did not respond to requests for comment from Inside Education.

The regulations are intended to establish clear rules governing how many learners schools can accommodate, how much space should be allocated to each learner and teacher, and when additional classrooms, teachers or other resources are required.

EE and the EELC said the absence of binding capacity regulations continued to undermine efforts to address overcrowding and ensure that learners had access to safe and adequate learning environments.

They warned that overcrowding limited individual attention from teachers, contributed to mobile classrooms becoming permanent structures and exacerbated the ongoing school admissions crisis.

The DBE published the first draft of the proposed regulations for public comment on 7 August 2025.

Following its release, EE and the EELC held workshops with learners and school communities to gather input on the proposals. They also hosted a public meeting attended by learners, community members and DBE representatives.

The organisations submitted consolidated comments to the department in December 2025, identifying several shortcomings in the draft.

These included the absence of a definition of overcrowding, clear implementation deadlines and clarity on the responsibilities of different stakeholders.

They also raised concerns about inconsistencies between the proposed formula for calculating classroom capacity and the teacher-to-learner ratios contained in the draft regulations.

EE, with support from the EELC, subsequently developed alternative proposals, known as shadow capacity norms, to account for the conditions faced by schools that were already overcrowded and under-resourced.

The organisations said they had sought an opportunity to present these proposals to the DBE but had not received the feedback they expected.

“We sought an opportunity to present these proposals to the DBE. However, despite the expectation that the DBE would respond, we have yet to receive the promised feedback,” they said.

EE and the EELC are now demanding the “immediate release” of the final regulations, a public explanation from Gwarube for missing the court-ordered deadline and binding implementation timelines supported by clear accountability mechanisms.

They also want the regulations to include a definition of overcrowding that prioritises schools most severely affected by the problem.

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South Africa needs about R120 billion for additional classrooms and sanitation facilities to meet current demand in public schools, the Department of Basic Education (DBE) said on Monday, as growing learner numbers and fiscal constraints deepen pressure.

Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube highlighted the scale of the infrastructure challenge at the launch of the new LEAP 9 Maths and Science School in Kariega, Eastern Cape, where she welcomed Volkswagen South Africa’s investment in the project.

Gwarube described the school as an example of how government and business could work together to expand educational opportunities.

“Government has the primary responsibility for providing quality public education, but the scale of our infrastructure requirements demands that we mobilise every available resource. Responsible private sector partnerships can help us accelerate investment in the environments in which our children learn,” Gwarube said.

The DBE estimates that approximately R120 billion is required for additional classrooms and sanitation facilities to meet current demand across the public education system. Growing learner numbers and a constrained fiscal environment are compounding the challenge.

Gwarube thanked Volkswagen South Africa for its contribution, saying the investment was particularly significant in a province with a major automotive and manufacturing sector.

She said the LEAP 9 Maths and Science School aligns with the department’s Strong Foundations, Strong Futures strategy, which seeks to improve foundational literacy and numeracy while strengthening the pipeline into mathematics, science, technology and other gateway subjects.

“That eight out of 10 children cannot read for meaning by the age of 10 should concern every South African. We must strengthen the foundations of learning if we want young South Africans to succeed in STEM fields and participate meaningfully in our economy,” she said.

Gwarube said Volkswagen’s “Cradle to Career” approach reflected the importance of sustained investment in human capital.

“The learners at LEAP 9 are future engineers, scientists, teachers, entrepreneurs and skilled professionals. Some may one day contribute to the very industries that drive the Eastern Cape economy. Investing in their education is an investment in the province’s future.”

She called on more businesses to partner with government to expand access to quality infrastructure, strengthen mathematics and science education, and expose learners to career opportunities.

“The Eastern Cape has enormous human potential. We must ensure that geography or circumstances of birth never place a ceiling on a young person’s ambition,” she said.

Speaking at the launch, Volkswagen Group Africa Chairperson and Managing Director Martina Biene reflected on the company’s 75-year journey in South Africa and its investment in communities around its Kariega operations.

Biene described Volkswagen as deeply rooted in the communities where it operates, saying the company sought to respond to community needs and invest in empowering people.

She highlighted LEAP 9 as another example of Volkswagen’s commitment to education and expanding opportunities for young people in KwaNobuhle.

The LEAP 9 project has transformed the former Mlungisi Perfector School into a Maths and Science primary and high school in KwaNobuhle.

“We put our money where our mouth is, but also our hands and our hearts,” Biene said.

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Minister of Basic Education Siviwe Gwarube has launched new national guidelines aimed at keeping school toilets safe, clean and dignified, shifting the focus from the eradication of pit toilets to the daily maintenance of water, sanitation, hygiene and menstrual health services in schools.

The National Guidelines for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Schools (WINS), launched at Welizibuko Primary School on Thursday, are intended to give schools practical, step-by-step guidance on strengthening sanitation and hygiene services while promoting accountability and sustainability across the basic education sector.

Speaking at the launch, Gwarube said poor sanitation continued to affect learners’ health, attendance and academic performance, with girls particularly affected during menstruation.

“Access to safe sanitation is fundamentally a matter of dignity, safety and educational success,” she said.

The guidelines are expected to help schools improve the responsible use and maintenance of facilities, strengthen hygiene practices and support menstrual health management as part of broader efforts to create safer and healthier learning environments.

Gwarube said the department had made significant progress through the Sanitation Appropriate for Education (SAFE) Initiative, with 99.9% of identified pit toilets eradicated. The programme has benefited more than three million learners and over 50,000 teachers by providing safer and more dignified sanitation facilities.

However, she cautioned that removing pit toilets was not the end of the work.

“Eliminating pit toilets is not the end of the journey, but maintaining school infrastructure, promoting responsible use of facilities and strengthening hygiene practices are critical to ensuring that schools remain safe, healthy and conducive to learning,” she said.

The Minister called on schools, provincial education departments, communities and learners to work together to protect and maintain sanitation infrastructure, saying the success of the WINS programme would depend on long-term behavioural change and the promotion of a culture of hygiene in schools.

The guidelines draw on lessons from the implementation of the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Three-Star Approach in schools across Gauteng and the Eastern Cape.

According to the department, the WINS Guidelines are expected to strengthen service delivery in schools while helping create healthier learning environments that support learner development and academic achievement.

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The DA in Gauteng has accused the provincial government (GPG) of failing to remove ageing asbestos structures from Randfontein Secondary School and Toekomsrus Primary School, saying learners and teachers remain exposed to unsafe buildings despite repeated promises to replace them.

DA Gauteng Education spokesperson Sergio Isa Dos Santos, MPL, said on Monday that teachers were continuing to work in unsafe environments that compromised their safety and dignity, despite the Gauteng government’s long-standing promise to replace asbestos schools with safe, modern infrastructure.

“During a recent sitting of the Gauteng Legislature, MEC for Infrastructure Development and Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Jacob Mamabolo, failed to give a clear answer to the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) oral question on why the GPG has still not eradicated asbestos infrastructure years after missing the deadlines set out in the 2013 Minimum Uniform Norms and Standards for Public School Infrastructure,” Dos Santos said.

“Instead, he repeated the government’s hollow commitment to asbestos eradication, with no clear timeline or end in sight.”

Dos Santos said the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) had previously allocated about R112 million for rehabilitation and asbestos-related infrastructure upgrades at Randfontein Secondary School.

Despite that allocation, he said, a DA oversight inspection found that critical safety hazards remained unresolved, including an incomplete administration block, unfinished bathrooms, falling ceiling panels and staircases missing safety bars, all of which continued to put learners and staff at risk.

“Shockingly, the department’s so-called intervention in this school seems to have involved building brick-and-mortar structures around existing asbestos classrooms rather than completely removing them,” he said.

“Most of these structures have since deteriorated or collapsed, exposing learners and educators to cracked and broken asbestos panels.”

Dos Santos said the situation had been worsened by severe overcrowding at the school, with Grade 8 classes recording learner-to-teacher ratios of 1:50 and Grade 11 classes reaching as high as 1:73.

At Toekomsrus Primary School, Dos Santos said asbestos infrastructure remained in place and required urgent replacement.

“Some of the school’s mobile classrooms are more than 30 years old and need to be removed, while the roof blocks are in dire need of maintenance,” he said.

“Although the department assessed the school two years ago, no work has been carried out.”

Dos Santos said he was “outraged” that the GPG continued to delay the eradication of asbestos schools despite the well-known deadly health risks linked to asbestos exposure.

“The DA will escalate the issue to Premier Panyaza Lesufi for urgent intervention,” he said.

“Those responsible for these unacceptable delays must be held accountable for continuing to hold learners and educators hostage in unsafe and undignified conditions.”

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The newly elected president of the North West Representative Council of Learners says special schools and school infrastructure will be among the top priorities for the province’s 2026 learner leadership structure.

Angelina Mokoena, from Ikatisong Secondary School in Letlhabile in the Bojanala District, was elected president of the Provincial RCL Executive during the North West Department of Education’s Provincial Launch of the Representative Council of Learners, held from May 29 to 31 at Woodlands Country Lodge in Parys.

A total of 108 RCL representatives from 18 Local Education Offices attended the launch, alongside departmental officials.

“My plan for this term is to focus on special schools. I will ensure that learners with special needs receive all the resources and support they require. The committee will also prioritise improving school infrastructure, but our immediate priority is to secure a meeting with the MEC to map out a way forward,” Mokoena said.

The discussions at the launch focused on the functionality of RCLs in schools, strategies for safer schools, challenges faced by RCLs, discipline in schools, and the role of RCLs in promoting school culture and vision.

North West Education MEC Viola Motsumi congratulated the new committee and said the department would support the learner leadership structure.

“I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all the learners who have been elected to the leadership of the Provincial RCL. I also want to encourage those who were not elected not to lose hope. Your opportunity will come. Some of you will be pursuing your studies at tertiary institutions next year, where you will have further opportunities to take on leadership roles and be elected to student structures. This is not the end of your journey; rather, it is the beginning of many new opportunities ahead.

“On behalf of the Department, I would like to confirm that this committee will receive our full support at all levels of management. I also want to urge school principals to work closely with the RCLs in their respective schools. The future of this country rests in the hands of these young people; therefore, we must mentor and guide them effectively so that they can succeed in their responsibilities and leadership roles,” Motsumi said.

The elected 2026 Provincial RCL Executive is made up of Mokoena as president; Kago Sebetwane from Ramotshere Secondary School in Dinokana Village, Ngaka Modiri Molema District, as deputy president; Rendani Msimang from Hoërskool Haartebees in Haartebees, Bojanala District, as secretary; and Classeng Enrique from Promosa Secondary School in Potchefstroom, Dr Kenneth Kaunda District, as deputy secretary.

Athulile Mhlongo from Hoërskool Orkney in the Dr Kenneth Kaunda District was elected treasurer, while Khaya Matuane from Seabo Secondary School in Kokomeng Village, Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District, was elected public relations officer. Hlomamo Loabile from Kismet Secondary School in Vryburg, Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District, was elected as an additional member.

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Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube this week announced a package of education reforms while tabling the Department of Basic Education’s 2026/27 budget.

Among the announcements was confirmation that ECD centre registrations had grown by 200% since 2021, expanding access to 1.2 million children across South Africa.

Gwarube also announced an ECD Nutrition Pilot in the Eastern Cape, aimed at tackling child hunger, malnutrition and stunting during the early years of development.

The department will also develop national screen-time guidelines for children aged two to six, amid concerns about the effect of excessive exposure to phones and tablets on language, memory, attention span and social development.

In a major legislative development, Gwarube said the Children’s Amendment Bill had been approved by Cabinet and would now go to Parliament.

“The Bill is critical to unlocking a more efficient, child-centred ECD system so that vulnerable children are not excluded from support because of unnecessary red tape,” Gwarube said.

She also announced the establishment of a Multi-Disciplinary Technical Support Team to help provincial education departments facing severe financial pressure return to sustainable financial paths.

The team will support provinces with budget planning, financial analysis, school resourcing and financial stabilisation to protect classroom delivery and improve governance.

On foundational learning, Gwarube said 10,000 Foundation Phase teachers would receive targeted literacy and numeracy training in 2026/27. The department will also refresh the implementation of the National Reading Literacy Strategy.

Gwarube said the department would issue directives to schools to cut the number of reporting tools teachers were required to complete.

“We are reducing the administrative burden on teachers, educators must spend more time teaching children and less time filling in unnecessary paperwork” she said.

In one of the most significant changes, Gwarube said the department would begin ranking provincial matric performance using an inclusive basket of quality indicators, rather than allowing a single matric pass-rate percentage to dominate the national conversation.

The new approach will consider learner retention, bachelor passes, literacy and numeracy progression, mathematics participation and overall learning improvement.

The minister also announced that the department would launch an independent external forensic investigation into the Foundation Phase National Catalogue process.

On funding, Gwarube said the department had been allocated R38.2 billion for the 2026/27 financial year, despite fiscal constraints. This includes R32.7 billion in conditional grants, R11 billion for the National School Nutrition Programme, R16 billion for the Education Infrastructure Grant, and R4.6 billion for the Early Childhood Development Grant.

“We must build strong foundations for strong futures. The future of South Africa depends on the quality of education we provide to every child today,” Gwarube said.

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The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Metsimaholo Local Municipality has escalated its long-standing concerns over deteriorating school infrastructure, calling on Free State Premier McQueen Letsoha-Mathae to urgently intervene as delays, safety risks and unfinished projects continue to plague local schools.

The latest appeal, issued by DA councillor Stone Makhema on Sunday, follows an oversight visit with DA National Council of Provinces (NCOP) Member of Parliament (MP) Igor Scheurkogel.

The delegation found that critical projects at HM Mthombeni High School in Amelia and Taaibos Primary School in Kragbron remain incomplete despite multiple promises and revised deadlines from the Free State Department of Education.

Construction of Mthombeni school began in 2019 with an initial completion date of 2022.

Yet, more than three years past that deadline, the school remains a construction site.

Twenty of its twenty-eight classrooms still lack electricity, meaning learners often sit in darkness on cloudy or rainy days.

Makhema painted a grim picture of the conditions.

One classroom, he noted, has been converted into a makeshift kitchen where food is prepared with gas stoves—without fire extinguishers or any safety measures in place.

Doors of poor quality require constant replacement, barricades obstruct movement, V-drains stand unfinished, and the school hall has been left half-built since last year.

“Only a handful of contract workers can be seen on site. This clearly shows a lack of urgency from the department,” Makhema said.

The DA argues that learners and educators have been forced to study and teach in unsafe, disruptive conditions that undermine education.

Despite the department’s claim that the project is over 90% complete, the DA says the reality on the ground shows otherwise.

Taaibos Primary School has faced a similar fate.

Refurbishments started in February 2024 with the promise of completion by January 2025.

That deadline was missed, followed by another in the second term of 2025. Oversight visits revealed rubble scattered around the school, half-finished facilities and construction workers often absent from the site.

Children are reportedly still being served meals outside in open spaces because the school kitchen remains unfinished.

The electricity connection is incomplete, and much of the schoolyard requires paving.

According to documents seen by Inside Education, the Department of Education has attributed the delays to “cashflow issues” faced by the main contractor, sequencing problems caused by construction during school hours, and disputes between contractors.

Although a revised completion date of July 2025 was issued, Makhema now says even the latest target dates of September and October appear “an impossible mission”.

“The Free State Department of Education has continuously shifted blame to the Department of Public Works. Meanwhile, our children suffer in hazardous learning environments,” Makhema stressed.

The DA has repeatedly requested joint oversight inspections with the department, but says its calls have been ignored.

Instead, completion dates are moved forward year after year without tangible progress.

“Contractor disputes, non-payment and endless extensions cannot continue to be the excuse. The safety and education of learners must come first,” Scheurkogel said.

The opposition is now demanding Premier Letsoha-Mathae’s direct intervention, arguing that the education department under MEC Mantlhake Julia Maboya has failed to deliver on its promises.

In April, DA MPL Dulandi Leech posed a series of questions in the Free State Legislature regarding the HM Mthombeni project.

The department confirmed that R87.6 million had been allocated, of which over R65 million had been spent by March 2025.

It also revealed that the original joint venture contractor had collapsed due to internal disputes, forcing the appointment of a new service provider, Elebone Multipurpose, with a revised completion date of May 2025.

Despite these assurances, the site remains incomplete months later, intensifying frustration among parents, learners and opposition parties alike.

MEC Maboya has recently launched initiatives such as the 150 Primary Schools that Work programme, promising to strengthen school functionality and performance across the province.

However, the DA argues that such flagship projects ring hollow when basic infrastructure remains unfinished in Metsimaholo.

“Investing in primary education is imperative,” Maboya said at the launch, where she handed over 30,000 digital devices and 367 library trolleys.

Yet, according to Makhema, “No number of tablets can make up for the fact that learners in Metsimaholo are studying in unsafe and incomplete classrooms.”

The DA insists that only the Premier’s office can break the deadlock.

“Premier Letsoha-Mathae must step in and hold the responsible departments accountable. Our learners cannot continue to pay the price for administrative failures,” Makhema urged.

The opposition has pledged to continue monitoring the situation and to push for urgent intervention until the schools are safe and fully functional.

Inside Education reached out to the Free State Department of Education for comment on the state of the schools, with no response being received by the time of publication.

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Five learners have been arrested in connection with a fire that gutted two prefabricated classrooms at Thuto-Lefa Secondary School in Munsieville, Krugersdorp on Wednesday.

Gauteng education department MEC Matome Chiloane strongly condemned the destruction of school property, calling the act criminal and deplorable.

“Burning a classroom is not a form of protest, it is a criminal act that robs learners of their right to quality education. We will not tolerate such destructive behaviour, and those responsible must face the full consequences of the law,” Chiloane said.

The blaze is suspected to have been started deliberately, allegedly in response to recent changes in the school timetable aimed at improving academic outcomes ahead of preliminary exams.

The fire occurred shortly after midday. Emergency services managed to contain the blaze before it could spread further.

No injuries have been reported.

While the exact cause of the fire remains under investigation, early indications point to learner dissatisfaction over the school’s recent timetable restructuring.

The changes, implemented by school management, were introduced to ensure that all prescribed curriculum content was covered before the upcoming Grade 12 preliminary examinations and to provide learners with additional revision opportunities.

The timetable adjustment, however, was reportedly met with resistance from some learners.

The South African Police Service has launched a formal investigation into the incident, and four Grade 10 learners and one Grade 9 learner have been arrested.

Authorities are now working to determine the exact roles the learners played and whether others may have been involved.

Chiloane reiterated that the department’s goal was to strengthen academic performance across the province, not to inconvenience learners.

The department has assured parents, learners and the broader school community that efforts were underway to ensure that the loss of the two classrooms would not cause prolonged disruption to teaching and learning.

Officials have been deployed to assess the extent of the damage and develop an urgent response plan.

The department plans to bolster security measures at the school to prevent any further incidents.

Chiloane urged learners, parents and communities to approach grievances constructively and to respect school infrastructure, which belonged to all citizens and played a crucial role in enabling future opportunities for the youth.

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The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Maluti-a-Phofung Local Municipality has called on the Free State education department to account for the worsening state of school infrastructure in Qwaqwa, citing alarming conditions observed during an oversight visit.

DA councillor Paseka Mokoena said the party visited Boitsebelo Junior Technical School, which was shut down in June 2023 with the intention of converting it into a special needs school. 

However, he said no visible progress has been made on the project and the facility had since become a target for vandalism and unlawful occupation. 

“We witnessed firsthand the deterioration of buildings that could still serve the community meaningfully,” Mokoena said in a statement on Monday.

“This is not an isolated case; many schools across the Qwaqwa area have suffered a similar fate, abandoned and stripped.”

In Matsieng village, Mokoena said one school had been destroyed to such an extent that there was no visible evidence it had ever existed. 

He said Makabelane Technical High School was another example of neglect.

The school still hosted camps for Grade 12 learners, but its adjacent hostel remained vandalised and partially occupied by unknown individuals and companies.

Following the oversight visit, Mokoena said the DA had submitted formal questions through its representatives in the Free State legislature, demanding clarity on the status and future of the affected schools.

The party is seeking answers on why the hostel at Makabelane Technical High School has not been rehabilitated, how many schools in Qwaqwa have been shut down due to neglect, whether these properties have been returned to the provincial department of infrastructure, and what plans exist to restore or repurpose the abandoned buildings.

“We believe that infrastructure, such as Boitsebelo, can be best transformed into a skills development centre, offering alternative education and vocational training for young people who struggle with formal schooling,” Mokoena added.

He said such a facility could provide accredited programmes to empower youth and contribute to addressing the high unemployment and poverty rates in the area.

Sibusiso Majola, who is the spokesperson for education MEC Mantlhake Julia Maboya, told Inside Education that Maboya has not yet received the formal questions from the DA.

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Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube has reiterated her department’s commitment to early child development (ECD), literacy improvement, infrastructure development and inclusive learning to help address the country’s education crisis.

Gwarube tabled a R35 billion budget under the theme “Builders vs Breakers: Shaping South Africa’s Future Through Education”. It was met with strong support and fierce opposition across party lines.

“This budget is for the builders — those who understand that lasting change is not forged in the headlines, but in classrooms and communities where our children learn, dream and grow. Therefore, I say this to the breakers: our children deserve better. If you cannot build, at least do not stand in the way of those who do,” Gwarube said.

The minister outlined five key priorities: expanding access to quality ECD, strengthening foundational literacy, promoting inclusive education, advancing teacher development, and improving school infrastructure and safety.

“Support this budget not out of party loyalty, but in the service of the children whose futures depend on it,” she urged MPs.

Gwarube warned that 8 out of 10 children still could not read for meaning by Grade 4, declaring foundational learning the centrepiece of the department’s strategy.

The ECD Conditional Grant rises to R1.7 billion, with R230 million allocated to nutrition and R162 million to infrastructure.

Over 10,000 centres are set for registration this year, with plans to develop a new national catalogue of learning materials by 2027.

The Funza Lushaka Bursary Scheme will fund over 9000 student teachers, and R1.8 billion will be spent on training, mentoring and leadership development.

African National Congress MP Joy Maimela welcomed the budget, citing the Freedom Charter’s call to open “the doors of learning and culture”.

She praised the transfer of ECD to the department and affirmed support for the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Act, particularly its focus on multilingualism and inclusive admissions.

“This budget secures our children’s future,” she said.

Democratic Alliance MP Delmaine Christians described the budget as a shift “from slogans to service”.

Christians credited the minister with eradicating 97% of pit latrines and reviving the National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP) after a botched R9.8 billion tender.

She welcomed oversight mechanisms and financial recovery plans.

“We must protect this budget from the ghosts of corruption.”

The Patriotic Alliance’s Jasmine Petersen urged for the retention of 2400 Western Cape contract teachers.

“These aren’t just numbers, they are mentors and anchors in communities,” she said, calling for infrastructure grants that were not spent to be redirected to staff retention.

Economic Freedom Fighters MP Mandla Shikwambana rejected the budget as “austerity dressed in progress”.

He lambasted the department’s celebration of matric results while half a million learners drop out annually.

“This budget entrenches inequality,” he said, citing schools in Limpopo that still lacked flushing toilets after 50 years.

uMkhonto weSizwe Party’s Pinky Mngadi called the budget a “betrayal”, revealing that over 440 Limpopo schools remained closed and R620 million in infrastructure funds went unspent.

She dismissed the talk of digital transformation as “elitist”, warning that learners were still sitting under trees.

ActionSA’s Lerato Ngobeni issued a conditional endorsement, citing her nephew’s struggles in an Alexandra school as evidence of a broken system.

“Per-learner spending has dropped. Classrooms leak. Pit latrines persist. This is not a blank cheque,” she said.

Inkatha Freedom Party MP Siphosethu Ngcobo praised the expanded ECD targets, but warned that urban-rural divides remained stark.

He raised concerns over governance failures in KwaZulu-Natal and urged improved support for teachers.

Build One South Africa leader Mmusi Maimane called for the scrapping of the 30% pass threshold, particularly in STEM subjects.

“We are preparing youth for unemployability,” he warned.

Maimane welcomed ECD investment, but said funding still lagged behind policy ambitions.

The African Transformation Movement’s Vuyolwethu Zungula condemned the budget for ignoring African spiritual practices and history.

He called for curriculum transformation, municipal cooperatives to supply uniforms and improved scholar transport.

African Christian Democratic Party MP Wayne Thring criticised shrinking per-learner budgets and overcrowded classrooms.

He opposed BELA for criminalising poor parents over absenteeism, and emphasised parental rights, entrepreneurship and faith-based schooling.

Rise Mzansi’s Makashule Gana focused on school safety, raising alarm about sexual violence and gambling among learners.

He praised a new agreement between the police and the Basic Education Department, but warned “plans without action mean nothing”.

Gana also urged the department to take the implementation of BELA seriously.

In her reply, Gwarube defended the Act’s protections for religious freedom and urged schools to update discriminatory conduct codes.

She promised transparency, welcomed oversight, and pledged to answer “difficult questions” in Parliament.

“We must rise above political noise; 13.5 million children depend on the choices we make in this House,” she concluded.

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The Gauteng department of Education MEC Matome Chiloane will be giving more capacity to schools including rolling out of mobile classrooms with additional 4 000 new educators. This is in preparation for the 2023 school calendar.

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At least 26 Eastern Cape schools have been hit by a tornado, the provincial department of education said on Thursday.

The vicious tornado ripped opened roofs, demolished buildings and caused severe damage to school infrastructure. Most of the affected schools are in the OR Tambo Coastal education district.

Eastern Cape education MEC Mlungisi Mvoko, speaking at a media briefing on the province’s readiness for the 2019 academic year,  said a team from the infrastructure section of the department has been sent to assess the extent of damage in all the affected schools.

He said the damage to infrastructure was a blow to the province which is lagging behind when it came to infrastructure development.

“We are sitting at an infrastructure backlog of R70.1 billion and the amount we allocate each year is nowhere closer,” said Mvoko.

He said the work to repair the schools affected by the tornado would be carried out during the festive season.

On school nutrition, Mvoko said the provincial education department would be ready to deliver from the first day of the school term next year.

“The department will feed 1.6 million learners in 5,164 schools from the first day of the 2019 academic year in Quintiles one to three and identified special schools,” said Mvoko.

In addition, the department said it was ready to deal with the late registration of pupils by establishing a call centre to deal with a last-minute influx of learners who are seeking to be placed to various schools in the province.

The call centre will be operational when the school term commences.

The department said it will strengthen its scholar transport programme to ensure that learners who need to be transported to attend schools benefit.

Mvoko said the department has cut the red-tape to speed up the process of appointing educators.

“Schools must speed up the appointment of teachers to ensure that vacancies are filled in time,” he said.

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Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga on Wednesday tabled her department’s budget where she spoke of budget cuts, funding for infrastructure and the change in current curricula.

The overall 2018/19 budget allocation for the Department of Basic Education is just under R23 billion, 3% lower than the previous year.

Motshekga said her department only received a one percent increase over the previous financial year’s total allocation.

“In inflation-adjusted terms, this means that we are seeing a decline in the overall budget allocation for the basic education sector,” she said.

Motshekga said the budget vote took place in the context of “financial constraints” which had led to a reduction in basic education sector funding.

“I must state upfront that budgetary constraints in the sector have rightfully attracted a lot of attention over the last year, largely because of the weak economic growth.

“The basic education sector, like most other service delivery areas, has had to reduce what it purchases,” she said.

However, despite the budgetary cuts, the administration budget has increased by 8.2% to about R450 million.

The grant for learners with severe learning disabilities receives R185.5 million, almost three times the R72 million allocation in the last financial year.

Infrastructure delivery, which continues to be funded through the Education Infrastructure Grant and the Accelerated Schools Infrastructure Delivery Initiative (ASIDI), will receive an allocation of R9.9 billion and R1.5 billion respectively. This is a decrease of 44.8% from the 2017/18 allocations.

Criticism came from Equal Education and Section 27, both non-governmental organisations, that have placed the department of basic education uder pressure to fix schools in South Africa and fix the norms that apply to all schools.

The norms are laws which requires school infrastructure to meet minimum Norms and Standards.

Amanda Rinquest, the Co-Head of Equal Education Eastern Cape, said the minister has made many excuses for failing to fix schools. Some of these excuses include budget cuts announced by National Treasury.

“It is crucial to bear in mind that neither provincial education departments nor the national DBE effectively spend the funds that are already available. In 2015, the Eastern Cape underspent its education infrastructure grant by R530-million. In 2017, the national DBE underspent its budget to build schools in the Eastern Cape (via the ASIDI programme) by R415-million,” said Rinquest.

Regarding  department of basic education’s want to  phase in a new-look curriculum on history over seven years, Motshekga said:

“We will phase it in, we will make the necessary adjustment but we will also take the paradigm – the paradigm can’t be a Eurocentric paradigm, which teaches about the French revolution only. They have to know about the French revolution but they have to also know about Haiti just to have an Afro-centric perspective about the rest of the world.”

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The Eastern Cape education department predicts it will have eradicated all mud schools in the province by 2022 — six years later than promised by the national minimum norms and standards set by the national education minister, Angie Motshekga.

Schools built out of mud, wood, zinc and asbestos should have been fixed or replaced by November 2016, according to the standards for public school infrastructure released by Motshekga in November 2013.

But, in a written reply to the Eastern Cape legislature in Bhisho last month, education MEC Mandla Makupula said there were still 436 mud schools in the province, which he said should be phased out by 2022.

Even this date is not certain: “It is dependent on the circuit school landscape plans to identify if the schools in the plan are viable, and the availability of budget,” Makupula said.

He said the cost of eradicating all such schools was estimated at R19.9‑billion but that the amount could drop to R16.9‑billion through efforts such as the “rationalisation” of some schools — merging smaller schools and closing others.

Makupula said 367 of the mud schools had been allocated to the Accelerated Schools Infrastructure Delivery Initiative.

The programme was launched in 2011 to deal with the school infrastructure backlog in the country. The other 69 mud schools were allocated to the province to be dealt with through a conditional grant.

The spokesperson for the national department of basic education, Elijah Mhlanga, said that because the province included two homelands — the former Ciskei and Transkei — its issues were “peculiar”.

“In the Eastern Cape, the eastern part of the province [the former Transkei] had no schools at all,” he said. “The majority of the schools there were built by communities using their own hands, using mud and water. The western part had schools that were built by the former regime.

“So when you allocate funds now, how do you do it? Do you favour the one part over the other? You can’t be seen to be favouring one part, which means then the part that was historically worst off will continue to be worst off and the one that had some level of resources will continue to benefit.

“You have to catch up but, even in catching up, you are also perpetuating a problem — because where you could do more, you are forced to do the same as the other part and you end up with long periods of time continuing with not much of a difference,” Mhlanga said.

The province needed strong political leadership to ensure that areas with persistent problems were focused on trying to address the imbalances, he said, but the responsibility for this lay with the provincial premier, and not with Motshekga.

Another difficulty was that senior managers did not stay in positions for long enough to carry out projects.

“You did not have a CFO [chief financial officer]; you did not have a finance manager; you did not have an HOD [head of department] staying for an extended period.

“The infrastructure [in the] department did not exist and that is why monies were returned to treasury because there was no one to plan, finalise plans and commit monies and deliver. So those were the challenges,” Mhlanga said.

The fact that the province was large had also complicated management issues, he noted.

“Delivering on school infrastructure was a big, big challenge in the Eastern Cape … There was [a lack of] scholar transport, which had been stopped at some point; school nutrition, which had also been stopped at some point; and in that same process schools had also not been built at the rate that was required,” he added..

This was why the Accelerated Schools Infrastructure Delivery Initiative programme was so concentrated in the Eastern Cape, Mhlanga said.

Of the estimated 180 schools that have been built by the programme so far, 141 are in the Eastern Cape.

“Even with that, if you go to the Eastern Cape it looks like we have done nothing and [the programme] is just a small project, which is supposed to supplement what the province has already been doing.”

Mhlanga said things would soon start to take a different turn, as a new provincial education department head had been appointed and a new infrastructure team was in place.

But education advocacy group Equal Education said the provincial department did not meet the 2016 deadline for eliminating mud schools because it had failed to plan properly and its database was inaccurate.

Co-head of Equal Education in the province Luzuko Sidimba said: “Our understanding is that the backlog is about 800 inappropriate schools in the Eastern Cape and not 400 … they don’t even know some of these schools … So that’s why we are skeptical about trusting the figures they present in public. Are those figures accurate? Because we have made it clear to them that their data is not accurate.”

Equal Education is counting on a judgment to be delivered in the Bhisho high court after it took the basic education department to court to compel it to meet the infrastructure targets it had set to fix schools.

In the case heard in March, the organisation alleged that there were unconstitutional loopholes in the norms and standards, which the department used to sidestep its responsibility to fix schools.

The group also wants what it calls “inappropriate wording” in the law to be fixed. It claims  this is also preventing the department from doing what it is supposed to do.

Sidimba said if the organisation won its case, it would mean that each school could take the department to court for failing to build appropriate structures for teaching and learning.

This would be seen as a violation of a pupil’s rights to proper schools and dignified sanitation.

Read the original article here.

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