R19m for school infrastructure audit

THE provincial education department has awarded a R19-million contract to a private company to collect data on the state of infrastructure at 2 500 Eastern Cape schools.

This follows the appointment by the national Department of Basic Education (DBE) of a service provider for a similar audit of another 3 000 schools in the province.

Schools subject to the audit are almost all schools in the province, although some are due to be closed down.

Provincial

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spokesman Mali Mtima confirmed a private company, Aurecon, had been contracted to do the job on the second batch of 2 500 schools.

The work includes verifying whether schools had running or potable water, brick classrooms or prefabricated structures, electricity and sanitation.

“The work has been completed and the company is training staff on how to use a computerised system to capture that data so it can be edited internally when any changes happen at schools,” Mtima said.

The contract was an extension of one DBE awarded to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) for R20-million.

Following concerted campaigning by non-government organisation Equal Education (EE), DBE Minister Angie Motshekga released the provincial implementation plans for school infrastructure norms and standards.

Aurecon Group technical director in the East London office Phillip Pratt declined to comment saying he needed approval from the education department.

DBE spokesman Elijah Mhlanga said the national department contracted PwC to update information on the department’s National Education Infrastructure (Neims).

The Neims database contained data on the condition of schools, their location, physical conditions of buildings, availability of learning and teaching facilities, and basic services such as water, sanitation and electricity.

Mhlanga said the database enabled DBE and provinces to plan and monitor progress in the delivery of infrastructure in schools.

The technical audit focused on whether the facilities were aligned to education’s norms and standards regulations.

“Outputs included measured or scale drawings of education institutions, including hostels, grounds and sites, materials and specialised facilities at these sites, the capturing of data, photographs of education buildings and the geographical position of public education institutions in the country,” Mhlanga said.

As part of the national initiative, Mhlanga said schools were visited by fieldworkers trained with the necessary skills to evaluate the conditions of buildings and sports grounds.

Attempts to get comment from EE were unsuccessful. —

Management

System