Teacher unions want infrastructure inspected

TEACHER unions want the infrastructure at schools to be inspected and assessed after the floods caused widespread damage.

Basil Manuel, the executive director of the National Association of Professional Teachers of SA (Naptosa), said: “Due to the floods, thousands of pupils have lost valuable teaching and learning time.

"We have called on the department to implement emergency plans to provide temporary classrooms, water and ablution facilities, as needed, to the damaged schools.

“The death of pupils and education staff members, the general devastation and the damage to schools would have psychologically affected other learners and staff of the schools involved.

“The deployment of psycho-social services to these schools was crucial. So it is heartening to learn that the provincial Education Department has already put the necessary wheels in motion to provide such services.”

Manuel said Naptosa had appealed to the department to do an assessment of schools in the province.

“We have also told them to work with the relevant national and provincial departments and local authorities to ensure that schooling in the province can return to normality in the shortest possible time.

“The disaster has once again firmly put the spotlight on school infrastructure.

“As Naptosa, we call on the department to develop a national plan to address poor school infrastructure.

“Granted, damage to schools as a result of a natural disaster cannot be prevented, but such a national school infrastructure plan should incorporate steps to address infrastructure disaster management.”

Nomarashiya Caluza, the provincial secretary for the SA Democratic Teachers Union, said they had asked the department to move affected pupils to nearby schools so learning could continue.

“We are concerned that there are a number of pupils and teachers who have not attended school in the last few weeks.

“We also understand that the repairs to the schools will take time.”

Caluza said as a way forward, they had called on the Department of Education to employ engineers to assess the infrastructure of schools.

“Some buildings are more than 50 years old.

“We need to look at the infrastructure of these buildings, from the pipes to the brickwork, so we can refurbish these buildings and prevent such damage in the future.”

Muzi Mahlambi, the spokesperson for the Department of Education in KZN, said initially there were more than 630 schools affected by the floods, including 101 that were left inaccessible.

“Since then, we were able to open 500 schools which are now operating.

“For the schools that were inaccessible to pupils, we worked with the Department of Transport to find alternative routes to get pupils to the school. Now we only have 19 schools that are inaccessible.”

Mahlambi said the department had provided uniforms and stationery to 132 displaced pupils who are living in community centres.

“The pupils are from the Ilembe, Pinetown and Umlazi districts. Last week, we rolled out our programme to deliver mobile classrooms.

‘We also have a special unit of engineers which is assessing the damage and infrastructure to the schools."