Equal Education will picket outside Parliament when Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan presents his Budget, the non-profit organisation said on Monday.

This was in anticipation of decreased funding for school infrastructure, they said in a statement.

Gordhan will table his Budget in Parliament on Wednesday.

Equal Education said they would not make unreasonable demands on government.

But they would be demanding that Treasury hold provincial departments accountable, to ensure that quality infrastructure plans were put forward to receive additional Education Infrastructure Grant (EIG) funding.

"We would also like to see Treasury put pressure on provincial governments to contribute more of their equitable share (from the national fiscus) toward school infrastructure," Equal Education said.

The organisation said an unacceptably high number of schools still needed access to water, sanitation and electricity.

"The Budget speech must pay close and specific attention to education. The implementation of norms and standards should be top on the priority list, with less than 10 months left to address the issue of schools without any access to water, electricity and sanitation, and all schools made entirely of mud, wood, metal and asbestos."

News24.com