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The Minister of Basic Education Mrs Angie Motshekga will today make publicly available reports detailing the progress made towards the delivery of school infrastructure in South Africa.

The education sector has achieved relatively good progress in providing basic services (water, sanitation and power supply) both in terms of actual access to services, but also in terms of operational capacity of the sector to provide these services. The targets as articulated in the Regulations Relating to Minimum Uniform Norms and Standards for Public School Infrastructure, is to attain universal access to basic services provision by the 2016/17 financial year.

The Regulations Relating to Minimum Uniform Norms and Standards for Public Schools infrastructure, hereinafter referred to as the Norms and Standards were published in the Government Gazette No. 10067 on 29 November 2013. The objectives of the regulations can be summarised as follows:

• To provide minimum uniform Norms and Standards for public schools’ infrastructure;
• To ensure that there is compliance with minimum uniform Norms and Standards in the design and construction of new schools and additions, alterations and improvements to existing schools when the regulations are published; and
• To provide for timeframes within which school infrastructure backlogs should be eradicated.

The sector provides infrastructure through two programmes; viz, the provincial programme as well as the Accelerated School infrastructure Delivery Initiative (ASIDI). The Provincial Schools Build Programme is implemented by provinces and it targets the provision of basic services, new schools, additions to existing schools, new and upgrading of services and maintenance. It is funded through the Education Infrastructure Grant and the Provincial contribution through the equitable share.

Each provincial Education department (PED) is required to submit its infrastructure plan (U-AMP) to the Department of Basic Education on a set of scheduled dates. Each PED identifies its targets in terms of the 3 year Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and progress is monitored and reported on Quarterly.

The Accelerated School infrastructure Delivery Initiative is a programme driven by the DBE to address schools infrastructure backlog on all schools that do not meet the basic safety norms and standards. It is funded through the Schools Infrastructure backlogs Grant. The purpose of the programme is for the eradication of schools made entirely of inappropriate structures and the provision of basic level of water, sanitation and electricity to schools.

The two programmes are jointly responsible for the attainment of the targets set in the Norms and Standards and the report is based on projects implemented through both programmes.

The provincial education departments have all submitted reports which will be available on the DBE website (www.education.gov.za) in the course of the day today.

Members of the public are urged to scrutinize the reports and provide input.


Issued by GCIS on behalf of the Department of Basic Education