Pandor Plans to Make Schools Safe

Sue Blaine Education Correspondent Business Day 27 November 2008

THE education department intends to rid SA of unsafe school environments by 2012.

This aim is part of the minimum
norms and standards for school infrastructure published for public
comment by Education Minister Naledi Pandor this month.

Education department statistics
show that 42% of SA’s 25043 public schools are overcrowded, 3152 have
no water, 1532 no toilets, 4927 no electricity, 79% no library, 68% no
computers for teaching and learning and 60% no laboratories.

This means there is an estimated
R153bn capital expenditure backlog and a R30bn maintenance backlog,
with R18bn budgeted to help sort this out over the next three years.

Comment must reach the national education department by December 23 this year.

The norms and standards,
developed this year, would be fully adopted by the end of next year and
implemented by 2010, Pandor said in Government Gazette 31616.

They will also be imposed on independent schools that will have to meet the minimum norms and standards.

The lack of norms and standards
had been a key constraint to prioritising what schools needed, and
defining the minimum infrastructure requirements for SA’s public
schools.

Because good planning needed a
clear sequencing of priorities, the lack had translated into poor
planning, and made it difficult for the national and provincial
education departments to manage and control the costs of provision and
the efficient use of resources, Pandor said in the document.

Schools that did not meet minimum
safety standards would not be tolerated and would be closed and Pandor
said in the gazetted document that “all effort will be made to not have
any school (not meeting safety norms by) … 2012”.

The aim is that by 2030 all South African public schools will have “an effective teaching and learning environment”.

SA has a multiplicity of schools
— covering all or part of primary or high school, and this presented a
serious challenge to the development of norms and standards that could
be systematically, equitably and transparently applied.

Pandor has decided to do away with combined and intermediate schools.

This means when the norms and
standards are properly implemented all schools will be either primary
or high schools and children in several different grades will not be
taught in a single classroom.

There will also be limits on the
number of pupils in a school (with the upper limit a high school of
1000 pupils) and a myriad stipulations on the size of classrooms,
offices and other school facilities.

School buildings will, at least, have basic sanitation, water supply, electricity and communication connectivity.

They will also have burglar
guards and a 1,8m high perimeter fence, a fire rating of 30 minutes
(meaning the building will not collapse in under this time) and a fire
extinguisher every 150m²