On 30 June 2022, Equal Education (EE) Western Cape members marched to Parliament in Cape Town, against the proposed changes to the school infrastructure laws (the Norms and Standards for Public School Infrastructure) which were made by the Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga.
The Minister on behalf of the Department of Basic Education (DBE) proposed that the deadlines at which the government is required to fix school infrastructure should be scrapped.
This would mean that there will be no specific date at which the government would have to provide schools with proper water, sanitation, electricity and classrooms.
Equal Education says this is the “most scary change” that the Minister wants to make to school infrastructure laws.
The education activists believe that these changes, if they are passed, will mean that teachers and learners will wait a long time for safe and proper school infrastructure. They describe the proposed changes as “drastic and unacceptable."
Speaking to the media, Equal Education’s head of organising in the Western Cape, Nontsikelelo Dlulani said that the deadlines are the only thing that they can use to hold the Minister accountable.
Equal Education said:
Without deadlines that are written into law, learners and teachers could be waiting another 10 or 20 years for their schools to be fixed. Without the legally binding deadlines, how can learners, teachers and parents hold the education departments accountable to fulfil their legal and moral duty?
The organisation called on the public to “say no to the proposed changes to the Norms and Standards,” and have urged them to make submissions to the DBE regarding this.
The proposed changes were published in the Government Gazette on 10 June 2022 and the deadline for feedback is 10 July 2022.
Equal Education says that it is “unhelpful” that the public has been given such a short period of time in which to submit feedback, especially considering that the changes were proposed in a “difficult to understand document”.
The organisation has requested the extension of public participation in the matter until the end of July.
