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Equal Education (EE) welcomes the visit by President Zuma to three schools in the Eastern Cape accompanied by the Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga and other senior government leaders.

The President has chosen to visit a province in serious need of advancement towards quality and equal education.

According to government statistics, the Eastern Cape has 5,669 schools, nearly a quarter of all schools in SA. Over two million young people attend these schools. The state of a large portion of these schools is unconstitutional. Daily they violate the rights of learners to basic education and to equality.

· No electricity supply in 1,177 schools, and unreliable supply 117 schools.
· No water supply in 1,117 schools, and unreliable water supply in 325 schools.
· No toilets of any kind whatsoever in 562 schools, and 3,184 schools have to use pit latrines.
· No library in 5,165 schools (90% of all schools).
· No laboratory in 5,222 schools (91% of all schools).
· No computers in 5,119 schools (90% of all schools).
· Only 218 schools, or 4% have internet.
· Only 188 schools have cricket field and only 53 have swimming pools.

In addition, the year began with multiple crises in learner transport, the school nutrition program, cancellation of temporary education, and non-delivery of Learning and Teaching Support Materials (LTSM).

It is very difficult for learners to learn and for teachers to teach under such conditions. The majority of the youth of the Eastern Cape are being failed by the education system, consigned to a life of manual labour or unemployment except for the lucky few.

EE also welcomes the announcement last week that the Department of Basic Education (DBE) has finally signed an MOU with EC Education Department after making the decision to launch a national intervention into EC education by way of S100(1)(b) of the Constitution in early March. This MOU, which will govern the work of Mr Mathanzima Mweli and the intervention team, must now be made public without delay.

But concrete action is now needed:
· Norms and Standards for School Infrastructure in terms of S5A of the SA Schools Act must be finalised.
· Incentives for strong teachers to work in township and rural schools.
· Provision of libraries and textbooks to every school without delay.

Equal Education’s agenda is shaping national discourse and action in education

The past few weeks have demonstrated the impact Equal Education is having on the national education debate in South Africa:

A few examples of how EE is shaping the issue:
1. Minister Motshekga uses S100(1)(b) to INTERVENE IN THE EC DEPT OF EDUCATION after EE met with the Minister and subsequently picketed Parliament calling for exactly this intervention.
2. President Zuma’s visit with a high-level delegation to the Eastern Cape – this follows action by EE to highlight to crisis in EC education, and the problems of MUD-SCHOOLS in particular. See http://www.equaleducation.org.za/node/518.
3. Treasury and DBE have announced two major conditional grants for SCHOOL INFRASTRUCTURE. These are the ‘School Infrastructure Backlog Grant’ for R8.2bn and the ‘Education Infrastructure Grant’ for R5.5bn. This follows EE’s campaigning for norms and standards for school infrastructure. See http://bit.ly/jQcjaG).
4. Gauteng MEC for Education, Barbara Creecy, has announced her intention to combat the problem of LATE-COMING (http://n24.cm/kDDMrI). This follows EE’s successful campaigns on this issue (http://www.equaleducation.org.za/node/513).
5. National media are beginning to pay attention to the critical need for SCHOOL LIBRARIES (http://bit.ly/kuS1ek). This follows EE’s successful campaigning on this issue (http://bit.ly/g19GFo).