Many schools in the province also lack basic resources such as textbooks and electricity. These factors have a negative impact on the quality of education and the ability of learners to succeed academically.
In March, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga claimed that her department made significant progress in dealing with the school infrastructure backlog across all provinces.
However, many have raised concerns saying that this is not the case, especially when it comes to schools the Eastern Cape.
According to NGO Equal Education (EE), the infrastructure issue has worsened so much so that majority of schools in the province fail to meet the minimum standards prescribed under the South African Schools Act.
Despite this, the Eastern Cape provincial department returned over R200-million to National Treasury in 2022 after failing to spend it on upgrading schools. The money was taken away and will be reallocated to other provinces that need it.
EE Eastern Cape Organiser, Itumeleng Motlhabane says that back in 2018, the provincial department started construction on a new school build that has yet been completed.
The department spent around R14 million for only the foundation for the schools administration block and temporal structures, says Motlhabane.
She stressed, “We are saying this is poor spending from the department, it can’t cost that much to put the foundation for one admin block and temporal structures.”
Motlhabane says the department has abandoned the school and have been unresponsive when questioned on when they plan on completing it.
Why are they not coming back to finish that project. What’s happening now is that the school is dilapidated, community members are stealing some of things that were meant to be used for construction and learners are affected by the floods.
The school is currently functioning in the temporal structures that were put up during the construction, which has threatened the health and safety of learners and educators.
Equal Education has engaged with department on the issue of poor spending, requesting answers on what the allocated funds were spent on since many schools are still lacking proper infrastructure.
The group says the department has made a commitment to trace where the payments were made and will update them on the investigations that is currently being conducted.
