After announcing an innovative delivery mechanism for school infrastructure in his state of the nation address (Sona) last year, President Cyril Ramaphosa made no mention of the programme in his address this week and efforts to get an update on it came to nought.
The Northern Cape and Eastern Cape education departments, where Ramaphosa announced that the programme was being piloted, directed all questions to the Presidency and the national department of education (DBE).
Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, referred Sunday World to the DBE for an update. DBE spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga had not responded to questions sent to him on Wednesday at the time of going to print yesterday.
Ramaphosa announced in his Sona last year that the “government is introducing an innovative social infrastructure delivery mechanism to address issues that afflict the delivery of school infrastructure. The mechanism will address the speed, financing and funding, quality of delivery, mass employment and maintenance.
“The new delivery mechanism will introduce a special purpose vehicle, working with prominent DFIs [development finance institutions] and the private sector, to deliver school education infrastructure. This approach is being piloted in schools in the Northern Cape and Eastern Cape,” he said.
The one-year review of the Sona released this week also provides no information on the progress of the commitment to “implement innovative delivery mechanism for social infrastructure in pilot schools”.
Following this year’s Sona, the largest teacher union, the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) said it would have loved to hear the president announce a special school infrastructure fund to bridge the gap between rural and township schools and
former Model C schools’’.
Sadtu general secretary Mugwena Maluleke said the Covid-19 pandemic has further exposed the disparities in infrastructure between township and rural schools and former Model C schools.
“It cannot be that the poor learners and their teachers have to make such huge sacrifices to compensate for lack of resources they do not have like their peers in former Model C schools,” said Maluleke.
Sadtu said it was in the dark about progress on this innovative social infrastructure mechanism for school infrastructure announced by the president last year.
“The president did not mention it [in this year’s Sona]. We hope it will be mentioned by the minister of basic education when she delivers her budget,” Maluleke told Sunday World on Friday.
The DBE – in its report on the status of school infrastructure, the Accelerated School Infrastructure Initiative (Asidi) and Sanitation Appropriate for Education (SAFE) initiative to parliament’s portfolio committee – said the new purpose vehicle was driven by the office of the Presidency.
The DBE was responding to a question asked by committee member Baxolile Nodada in May, who wanted to know whether there was a clear idea of what the new purpose vehicle would look like and what it entails.
Nodada further enquired on whether “this new purpose vehicle” was going to be an extension of the Asidi and SAFE programmes or an entirely new programme, and whether it has been budgeted for and what its focus will be on.
In his response, deputy director-general for infrastructure David van der Westhuijzen said the Presidency had established a task team with other departments involved.
“The DBE is a member of that task team. One of the elements of the approach of the project deals with funding and how they see the funding working; the funding model will be unpacked in the future.”
Educational psychologist Ramodungoane Tabane, who is an associate professor at the department of psychology of education at the University of South Africa, said money should be invested in children and adolescent’s mental health programme. “It is only in affluent areas where you find educational psychologists employed in the school,” he said.
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