The DA calls on the Department of Education in the Eastern Cape to prioritise the eradication of mud schools in the province in order to provide our children with safe, conducive learning environments.
A parliamentary response from the MEC for Education, Mandla Makupula, reveals that there are still 436 mud schools that are operational in the province. Please click on the button below to view the response.
367 of these mud schools will fall under a national jurisdiction within the Accelerated Schools Infrastructure Delivery Initiative programme (ASIDI). The Eastern Cape Department of Education is still responsible for the eradication and rebuilding of 61 mud schools in the province.
Minister Angie Motshekga’s Basic Education Department set aside R11-billion in 2011 to replace 530 mud and unsafe schools in the province by 2018. The Department of Education in the Eastern Cape now estimates that the eradication of mud schools will only be a reality in 2022.
Along with extending the deadline for the eradication of mud schools, an estimated R16.9 billion will be needed in order to make this a reality.
Last year alone, the national Department of Basic Education yet again failed the learners of this province by failing to spend R415-million of the School Infrastructure Backlogs Grant for the Eastern Cape. This is unacceptable!
Learners cannot fully develop in chaotic and dysfunctional environments. Thousands of learners across the province have had to endure cruel and unsafe conditions in order to get an education.
The youth of this province require Total Change for their development, they are the future of this nation and their well-being and education should be the highest priority.
Under a DA-led government, mud schools would not be tolerated. Unsafe and unviable schools would be eradicated with the urgency that is required. — Edmund van Vuuren MPL, Shadow MEC for Education.