The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Northern Cape demands that the Northern Cape Department of Education ensures that all schools are up to code before re-opening.

Our renewed call for improved infrastructure management follows community concerns about the shocking state of the Noupoort Combined School in Noupoort near Colesberg.

When recent maintenance and repairs were required, the school decided to take the reckless short cut of appointing an unqualified electrician to do electrical work. This short cut can cause a short circuit of the school's operations, as the substandard quality of his work came to light during a subsequent inspection by the qualified electrician who was asked to issue a certificate of compliance.

In fact, the qualified electrician found so many violations and potential hazards that he would have been within his legal rights to shut the school down for even longer.

We urge the department to ensure that the school uses the opportunity before re-opening on Monday 24 August 2020 to fix every single electrical fault. As it is, there is a very real risk of electrical fires spreading through the building and there is a very real risk of injury or even loss of life.

We cannot play such games of Russian roulette with learners or staff.

It is no secret that the basic education sector has been hit hard by budget cuts on infrastructure projects. And it is also no secret that the provincial department has failed, time and again, to manage infrastructure properly. So we have an education system that is already weakened by years of mismanagement and inadequate maintenance. Many schools in the province are in such a dilapidated state that they are unfit for teaching learners anything but safety warnings. The budget cuts that now come as a result of the public health crisis may very well push the entire sector over the cliff if we do not act now.

We will use the slots scheduled for educational oversight meetings on next week's programme of the Northern Cape Provincial Legislature to continue raising our concerns.

We would rather lose another day of teaching than lose one single life.

It's time for the department to think this way too and to prioritize the safety of our school communities.

 

Issued by The DA