The DA welcomes the additional allocation as well as the prioritisation to the Eastern Cape of R520 million out of R700 million for educational infrastructure in the Division of Revenue Amendment Bill tabled last week in the National Assembly. However, with effectively four working months left to the end of the financial year, the department will have to step up a gear and burn the midnight oil if it is going to successfully spend this money.
Its track record has been dismal to date. Last year it only spent 33% of its capital budget and in the first quarter of this year had only spent 8.5% of its capital budget. Last year it only managed to build three out of 17 schools. The Eastern Cape has thousands of schools that lack water, electricity and decent sanitation.
As the Departments of Education and of Public Works lack the capacity to spend, this project should be outsourced to an outside agency with the necessary controls and oversight.
Infighting, turf wars and general lack of capacity are destroying education in the Eastern Cape. This additional funding cannot be trapped in this poisonous spider’s web that continues to cripple the department.
The DA will strive to ensure that those responsible for the expenditure are held accountable so that the hopes of millions of learners to escape the poverty trap and better themselves can be realised.
In the 2011 Division of Revenue Act, R700 million in the schools infrastructure backlogs grant was unallocated. The National Department of Basic Education has now finalised the distribution to the nine provinces, hence the additional allocation of R520 million to the Eastern Cape. The grant is for the eradication of poor school infrastructure and provision of water, sanitation and electricity to schools.
Bobby Stevenson, MPL
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Hopefully the Census results will assist in identifying where the needs are for new schools to be built etc Seems to me that there is a tremendous lack of leadership from the top down. Everyone wants to be a manager or a leader, but many don’t have the capability. My advise is to identify the leaders of this country who have already proven themselves at delivering and employ them to spend the money as appropriately and beneficially to the scholars as possible, so that we can stop the education crisis in this Province. I go cold when I hear that there are no teachers in classrooms and classes get dismissed at about 11am every morning, how on Earth are kids supposed to learn and make a success of their lives if this is the case. I feel extremely sorry for the teachers who really try hard, never strike and deliver the results and who are then included within the dismal Eastern Cape Stats. Step 1 – Department you need to ensure that you employ quality Chiefs as Principals and hard working, dedicated people as Teachers.
Do we still have inspectors?