Black mark for state’s schools upgrade plan
The Accelerated Schools Infrastructure Delivery Initiative (Asidi) has failed to meet its targets to deliver quality infrastructure, say lobby groups Section 27 and Equal Education.
President Jacob Zuma praised the Department of Basic Education during his state of the nation address last week, saying the government had given SA’s children dignity by building modern schools to replace “mud structures and other inappropriate buildings through the Accelerated Schools Infrastructure Delivery Initiative”.
The president also said the initiative had seen the eradication of 173 inappropriate structures since 2011.
He said 895 new schools now provided a “conducive learning environment for our children”.
Developed in 2011, Asidi was supposed to tackle the school infrastructure backlog by 2015 and build safe and sanitised schools with electricity and water.
Equal Education spokeswoman Leanne Jansen-Thomas said spending of Asidi funding had been “terribly” slow and the meeting of targets “pitiful”.
The group highlighted the initiative’s inefficiencies in 2016 after the department and the Treasury presented their 2015-16 fourth-quarter results and 2016-17 first-quarter results to the portfolio committee on basic education and the standing committee on appropriations respectively on August 23 2016.
Equal Education pointed out that Treasury also reported that in the first quarter of 2016-17, the department only spent R176m against a projected amount of R929m.
Underspending was on the cards for 2017 as well.
Kate Patterson, an attorney at Section 27, said Asidi had been consistently achieving less than its annual target and there was no provision for urgent relief for schools.
This was partly due to rationalisation processes in provinces, she said.
“Whatever the reason for it, backlogs are not being sufficiently addressed and schools do not have enough money to
DEVELOPED IN 2011, ASIDI WAS SUPPOSED TO TACKLE THE SCHOOL INFRASTRUCTURE BACKLOG BY 2015
maintain their infrastructure.”
It was still worth noting that the department underspent by R447.9m in its planning, information and assessment budget, and this was mostly on Asidi.
Equal Education said that by the end of June 2016, there were about 171 schools without water, 569 with no electricity and 68 with no sanitation.
Jansen-Thomas said while every new school was a victory, “the Presidency ought to be well aware that all nine provinces failed to comply with the school infrastructure law and the harrowing consequences for learners and teachers”.