The Department of Basic Education has had its hands full following the infrastructure damage caused by the devastating floods in KwaZulu-Natal. More than 600 schools have been affected, and some will not be reopening until the damage is repaired.
The floods in the province damaged over 600 schools, affecting over 320 000 students. Following this, Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshekga visited Brettonwood High School in Durban as part of her evaluation of the damage to schools across the province.
While addressing the media during her visit, Motshekga said that the Department would do everything it can to ensure that some of the affected schools are back to full functionality.
We will open schools where it is possible to open and assist schools to settle down as soon as possible. Where we can’t open we will have to send them to neighbouring schools and centres.
Motshekga further stated that her office as well as that of the provincial education MEC, Kwazi Mshengu, are currently assessing the extent of the damages and are working to determine which schools the affected learners can be sent to.
Education MEC Kwazi Mshengu stated that repairing the 124 severely damaged schools would cost a lot of money.
“The preliminary figure currently stands at R442 million and that is for infrastructure. We are quantifying those figures now but definitely they will go up. That is why we said all our schools must open today but we were mindful that not all schools can commence with teaching and learning, but it was important for them to open so we can start quantifying the damage that has been done”
He further added that getting exact numbers of how many teachers are affected and how many learners are affected so that the department’s decisions are based on verified and credible information going forward.
