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Mail & Guardian
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Mail & Guardian
Equal Education slams Gwarube over claim that 90% of schools now in a better condition
Basic education minister, Siviwe Gwarube. (Lefty Shivambu/Gallo) Civil society movement Equal Education accused Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube of failing to understand the reality of public schools after she said last week that 90% of them are now in a better condition, according to her department's latest infrastructure assessments. Gwarube's comments were not true, with some classrooms not having been renovated since 2008, said Equal Education's spokesperson, Ayanda Sishi Wigzell. 'I think the minister needs to visit more schools across the country. The infrastructure many children are exposed to is not safe at all.' Gwarube told parliament that all mud and asbestos schools have been eradicated, marking what she called a 'major milestone in creating safer learning environments'. But the minister said there was still an infrastructure backlog requiring about R129 billion, for the eradication of unsafe pit latrines, the replacement of dilapidated structures and provision of essential services such as water and electricity. 'Over 8 222 schools still require additional classrooms, and meeting that need would cost approximately R32 billion. While we're working closely with the provinces to find solutions, this remains a critical area of focus,' said Gwarube. South Africa's public education system comprises 22 529 schools, according to the department of basic education. Recent data showed that the condition of 390 schools was categorised as 'very poor', 1 850 were identified as 'poor' and 53% of all schools were marked as 'good'. The Eastern Cape has the highest number of schools in the 'poor' and 'very poor' categories, totalling 1 090. In contrast, the Western Cape stands out with no schools in these categories. The province has the highest percentage of schools in 'good' and 'excellent' condition. Gwarube said 35 585 schools still required additional toilets to accommodate rising enrolment numbers, which would cost an estimated R14 billion. According to the department, 93% of the 3 372 identified pit latrines at schools have been replaced with appropriate sanitation facilities. The Sanitation Appropriate for Education initiative, introduced in 2018, targeted the elimination of unsafe pit toilets, but delays in its implementation have resulted in the death of children, the most recent being three-year-old Unecebo Mboteni, who fell into one such pit at a daycare centre in the Eastern Cape in 2023. Equal Education, which has been advocating for the 'Pit latrines in schools do not inherently equal education; in fact, they pose significant barriers to a quality and equitable learning environment. The presence of pit latrines, particularly plain pit latrines, creates numerous problems that negatively impact student well-being and educational outcomes,' Wigzell said. In May last year, new regulations were gazetted which stipulated that schools lacking basic services such as water, electricity, or sanitation must comply within 18 months. Schools constructed with unsuitable materials were given a 12-month compliance window. 'We cannot have learners in danger of drowning in pit toilets or learning in inappropriate structures, 30 years into our democracy,' Gwarube said. According to a response by the minister to questions in parliament last November, 405 schools in the Eastern Cape were still using pit latrines, 170 in KwaZulu-Natal, 40 in Mpumalanga and 37 in Limpopo. The department launched an app in partnership with Vodacom, which allows users to report unsafe toilets in schools, monitor progress on their removal and provide real-time feedback on infrastructure improvements. 'Far too many learners still face daily risks to their health and safety because of inadequate school infrastructure,' Gwarube conceded. According to the National Professional Teachers' Organisation of South Africa, provinces such as KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape face significant hurdles because of high infrastructure needs and budgetary constraints. 'These provinces host some of the most rural and under-resourced communities in the country, where schools often lack basic infrastructure like safe sanitation, reliable electricity, and adequate classroom space,' said the organisation's spokesperson, Basil Manuel. Parliament's portfolio committee on basic education said in February that 80% of the KwaZulu-Natal department of education's budget had been allocated to The department has introduced a 10-point strategy aimed at enhancing infrastructure planning, delivery, maintenance and monitoring at the provincial level.
Daily Maverick
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Maverick
Education in ruins: Gaza's children face dire consequences of ongoing conflict and neglect
The war waged by Israel against Palestine has denied children the right to education after schools have been closed and many children killed, said Dr Noam Peleg at Equal Education's third annual Yoliswa Dwane Lecture. In the past year and a half, Israel has devastated much of Gaza's infrastructure, killing more than 16,000 Palestinian children and depriving many of the opportunity to get an education. On Tuesday, 6 May 2025, Equal Education, a youth-led, mass democratic movement of learners, post-school youth, parents, teachers and community members who defend the rights of learners facing exclusionary policies, hosted their third annual Yoliswa Dwane Lecture at the University of Cape Town, speaking about Gaza, children's rights and international law. At the beginning of the lecture, Equal Education's Head of Organising in the Western Cape, Nontsikelelo Dlulani, reflected on Dwane's words of empowerment: 'The institution does not define your activism, you are an activist before the institution.' this year the guest lecturer was Dr Noam Peleg, an Associate Professor at the University of New South Wales' Faculty of Law and Justice, and an associate at the Australian Human Rights Institute, who advocates for children's rights. Peleg works in international children's rights law and authored the book The Child's Right to Development. He painted a disheartening image of the situation faced by school children in Gaza. Peleg said that since the war started, all schools in Gaza had been destroyed or closed, while families were struggling to access medical services for children suffering from disease and trauma. Education denied 'The Israeli legal system is both complicit and a key enabler in the genocide in Gaza, and for generations it was a key player in the war against Palestinian children… It denied the right to education, the right to health, the right to family life, the right to identity, the right to non-discrimination, the right to non-descrimination, and the right to life,' said Peleg. During the lecture, Peleg spoke about the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child that became the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history, and which has helped transform children's lives around the world, allowing them the right to education. However, Peleg said this was not the case in Gaza. 'Nearly all schools in Gaza have been destroyed by Israel since October 2023 and no child has attended school on a regular basis since. Children have no place to get physical education. They are displaced and… some of the teachers and children have been killed,' said Peleg. He argued that international law was failing because, despite the widespread ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, children had been victims of genocide and other war crimes throughout the 20th century. He said many children in Gaza, as well as Sudan, Cambodia, and even across Europe, did not enjoy any of the protections that adults promised them. Israel has strenuously denied that its war amounts to genocide and that it is defending its citizens from the threat posed by Hamas, which led the 7 October 2023 attack that killed 1,200 people and led to Israel's assault. Daily Maverick has previously reported that Human Rights Watch said the displacement of Palestinians 'is likely planned to be permanent in the buffer zones and security corridors', an action it said would amount to 'ethnic cleansing'. Mentioning stories of struggling families, Peleg shared a story of Raina, a 20-month-old baby from Gaza who was living with cancer and needed chemotherapy. Raina could not get the treatment, not because there were no nurses or oncologists, but, Peleg said, because 'Israel systematically and deliberately destroyed the availability of the healthcare system in Gaza. As a result, children like Raina are at the mercy of Israel. 'A 50-minute drive from where she lives, there is a hospital where she can receive the life-saving treatment that she needs. The problem is that this hospital is in the city of Ashkelon within Israel in [1948] territory. She used to be treated here, but her entry permit was revoked by Israel overnight, and her parents were told that this had been done due to security concerns. Preventing Raina from getting chemotherapy means one thing and one thing only — that she will die from cancer very soon,' said Peleg. Children a target 'Genocide justifiers claim that there are no innocent people in Gaza, not even children, and therefore killing them is legitimate and necessary in order to create a permanent state of security. Some Israelis go as far as claiming that it is essential to kill Palestinian children if they are the next generation of terrorists,' said Peleg. He told the audience that in Gaza children were suffering, had lost the muscle mass in their bodies and didn't have access to adequate nutrition. 'There is almost no food in Gaza, and this is a result of what Israel has imposed on Gaza since the war broke. Children go hungry and eventually die from hunger.' Israel has argued that Gaza has sufficient aid to sustain its population and that it is not suffering a hunger crisis. Speaking on how to prevent children from dying, Peleg quoted a statement by Save the Children that there needed to be an urgent response to treat and screen them in time. 'To prevent children from dying of starvation and malnutrition, you need to be able to reach them, screen them and treat them. We need to access communities. We need to be able to provide supplementary treatments for children,' said Peleg. DM
Eyewitness News
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Eyewitness News
Western Cape schools admission policy challenged in court
The Western Cape High Court is hearing an application by Equal Education on Thursday to have the Western Cape Education Department's school admission policy declared unconstitutional. Equal Education argues the policy does not cater for children with late applications. The case focuses specifically on the placement of learners in the Metro East Education District (MEED). The six applicants in the case include Equal Education and five parents or caregivers of children who made late applications in the 2024 school year. The children relocated from the Eastern Cape to the Western Cape due to unforeseen circumstances. In one instance, a learner's mother passed away. In another, her mother relocated to Johannesburg to work as a domestic worker. Another's mother was retrenched due to the COVID pandemic. These circumstances led to the parents and caregivers only applying for school placement after the school year had already begun. Thursday's hearing is part B of the case. In July 2024 Judge Lister Nuku ruled in favour of Equal Education in part A of the case, ordering the WCED to place in school all learners who had applied late. The court order led the department to implement new procedures for processing late applications and establish 'pop-up' admission stations in several areas of Cape Town. Equal Education has decided to continue with Part B because of 'systemic' issues that still remain. It wants the court to declare that the department's failure to plan for late applications violates the Constitution, the department's admission policy violates the Constitution by failing to accommodate late applications, and the admission policy violates the Constitution for unfairly discriminating on the 'basis of race, poverty level, place of birth and social origin'. Equal Education says the current admissions policy does not specify the steps which late applicants must follow, who is responsible for assisting late applicants, how long it will take for long applicants to be placed, and the process to be followed if late applicants don't have the required documentation. Equal Education's court papers argue that the department's conduct, admissions policy and related circulars are unconstitutional because they violate the right to a basic education. This is because education is the primary vehicle by which socially and economically marginalised persons can lift themselves out of poverty. Equal Education says late applications largely stem from migration from the Eastern Cape to the Western Cape, which are linked in the main to socioeconomic challenges facing learners from disadvantaged backgrounds. The majority of those affected by the current policy are Black learners, and by delaying their placement in schools, the cycle of poverty and disadvantage they seek to escape from is compounded, Equal Education contends. They dispute the department's claim that the arrival of late applications is 'unprecedented' because the department has been aware of this predicament since 2014. EDUCATION DEPARTMENT'S RESPONSE In court papers, the department argues that it is parents who are failing to comply with their legal duty to adhere to the compulsory education period (from age seven to age fifteen) by not to applying on time for their children to be placed in schools. The department argues that it goes out of its way through advocacy and communications efforts to raise awareness among parents about when and how they should apply for school placements in the preceding year. Applications for placement open in the preceding year between March and April. Applications should generally be made via the department's online system, but it also makes provision for walk-in applicants who should obtain assistance from the nearest district office. The department also argues that its admissions policy does cater to the needs of late applications and that parents and guardians of such children should make enquiries at the district office nearest to their place of residence. To the extent that any learners have not been placed, the department contends that it is investigating this and, in any event, according to the information received, almost all the learners have now been placed. Lastly, while not conceding that the current policy is defective, the department points out that it has recently adopted procedures which enhance its admission policy for late applicants. It says that Equal Education was invited to make input on this. This article first appeared on GroundUp. Read the original article here.
