Nina Bambeni | nina@radioislam.co.za
27 March 2023 | 11:00 CAT
2 min read

Photo Credit: EWN

Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga briefed the media yesterday on several issues plaguing her department while committing to eradicate school pit toilets by 2025. She added that the department works non-stop to build appropriate infrastructure at the country’s schools.

The department’s spokesperson, Elijah Mhlanga, mentioned that the pit latrines project should be completed within the next financial year as most had been completed. He blamed the COVID-19 restrictions and flooding last year for the delay.

Mhlanga spoke about the overcrowding at schools, saying parents heeded the department’s call for parents to send their children to school, which gave rise to younger children attending and causing overcrowding at schools. Mhlanga also stated that during the COVID-19 lockdown, schools were over-admitted as students attended rotationally, and once restrictions fell away, schools found that they had overcrowded classrooms.

According to Mhlanga, the Department of Finance was approached to request Treasury for funding that has been allocated. This has allowed for an increase in classrooms nationally. He added that they were checking the infrastructure to ensure learners had a good learning environment for educators to do their jobs.

Speaking about measuring learning outcomes for Maths and Reading Comprehension, especially for grades three, six and nine levels, he said an assessment was done for the grades, which will be released later this year. This will provide more precise details on progress made, but previous data revealed areas were lacking, but measures had been put in place.  

Listen to the full interview with Ml. Junaid Kharsany here.