Johannesburg - Equal Education (EE) and Equal Education Law Centre (EELC) have made a joint written submission to the Department of Basic Education (DBE) on what it has described as “drastic and unacceptable” proposed changes to the school infrastructure law.
The Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga made amendments to the norms and standards for public school infrastructure, which will essentially do away with the deadlines set for the department to deal with infrastructure issues at schools.
Basic infrastructure needs at a number of schools in South Africa have long been a massive problem, however, continuous deadline extensions and lagging behind have meant that some schools are still operating without basic infrastructure such as electricity, water and flushing toilets.
Last month EE members protested outside the basic education department's offices in Pretoria.
They do not want the department to remove time-lines for the regulations for norms and standards for public school infrastructure.
The EE and EELC have submitted that the removal of the crucial deadlines prevented lawyers and civil society from holding government officials to account.
The proposed changes to the school infrastructure law remove the 2016, 2020, 2023 and 2030 deadlines.
“These deadlines ensure urgency for providing safe and proper school facilities and make it possible for school communities to hold the DBE and provincial education departments accountable. Removing these deadlines will be terrible for learners and teachers who face dangerous school infrastructure daily. EE and EELC strongly reject the scrapping of the deadlines,” it said.
“Without these deadlines, government will take how ever long it wants to fix and build new schools,” it said.
The draft amendments to the Minimum Uniform Norms and Standards for Public School Infrastructure were published in the Government Gazette on June 10, 2022.
The education activists noted that there had been progress in government’s delivery of safe and decent school infrastructure since Motshekga adopted the school infrastructure law in 2013.
However, they insist that progress has been “painfully” slow, with far too many schools still having pit toilets, overcrowded classrooms, and buildings that are falling apart.
“After we got the school infrastructure law adopted, we then tried negotiating with the DBE to fix some gaps in it. In 2018, we returned to court to get Minister Motshekga to fix these gaps. EELC represented EE in that court case, which we won.
“When the DBE finally released the draft amendments in response to the judgment, we were shocked to see that the proposed changes will remove the parts of the law that demand accountability and urgency,” the groups said in their joint statement.
EE is a movement of learners, post-school youth, parents and community members, advocating for quality and equality in the South African education system. The EELC is a registered public interest law clinic specialising in education law. Its staff of social justice lawyers specialise in education law and policy, through conducting legal research and advocacy, community lawyering and public interest litigation.
The main concerns raised in their submissions included concerns that the public’s participation in this process had been superficial.
The DBE’s initial closing date for feedback from the public on its proposed changes was July 10, 2022 and was only changed to July 31, 2022 after EE and EELC called the DBE out for not informing the public of the publication of the document. EE and EELC wrote two letters of concern to the DBE, the second letter written alongside five other organisations. Following these letters and public outcry, the DBE put the draft amendments on its website and on its social media.
The EE and EELC also said the way the draft amendments were written was confusing and it was unclear what has been changed or replaced in the current law.
Added to this, the draft amendments are only available in English, which the groupings said made it difficult for learners, parents and teachers to understand, and give their feedback on the changes that will drastically impact them.
“This stifles meaningful public participation. EE and EELC have recommended that the DBE publish a user-friendly version for a more meaningful public consultation,” it said.
They were also “deeply worried” about the DBE wanting to remove important guidance on the details that must be included in reports. The law currently requires provinces to include certain information in their annual project plans and progress reports to the DBE. This information includes existing backlogs, the cost involved in reducing these backlogs, plans for building new schools, and plans for the upgrading and maintenance work for existing schools. The EE and EELC said that scrapping these guidelines meant that provinces can decide what and how much information to make available to the public.
In addition, the groups raised issue with the DBE allegedly ignoring what the court said in 2018 regarding the removal of the “escape clause”.
The escape clause states that schools can only be fixed if there is cooperation and resources from other parts of government, such as the Treasury or Eskom. The court agreed with EE and EELC that the escape clause in the law must be removed. However, the groupings maintain that the DBE’s proposed change was not fully in line with what the court said.
“The DBE is still trying to avoid being held accountable by keeping the wording in the law that says that the DBE must as far as possible make sure that the different parts of government play their part in delivering school infrastructure. In our submission, we ask the DBE to remove the phrase ‘as far as practicable’ from the law, to fully comply with the court order,” the submission included.
Education