An ambitious plan to grant governing bodies the power to appoint contractors to build additional classrooms at overcrowded schools is on the cards.
Basic education minister Angie Motshekga discussed the proposal with governing body associations and other education stakeholders on Saturday.
The proposed “special intervention programme on overcrowding” is aimed at fast-tracking the construction of extra classrooms, which is frequently bogged down by red tape and bureaucracy associated with conventional procurement processes.
At the moment, provinces are responsible for awarding contracts to service providers and paying them to build the facilities..
According to a slide presentation titled “Progress report on schools’ return to daily attendance”, Motshekga said the programme was designed to return all pupils to school.
While all schools in the Free State and Limpopo returned to daily attendance, 261 schools in six of the seven other provinces did not. The Eastern Cape did not provide figures as it was still “validating” them.
One of the reasons for the non-return of all pupils, according to Motshekga, was the shortage of floor space in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, the Northern Cape, North West and the Western Cape.
According to the proposals in the document governing bodies will:
- Receive specification and funds for the building of classrooms;
- Advertise to invite services providers to bid for the project;
- Select the successful provider from provided quotations;
- Monitor the progress and report on it to the district; and
- Sign off the project upon completion and pay the service provider.
According to the document, the building of additional classrooms through the conventional means was slow and affected by tender processes, supply chain management and Treasury regulations, implementing agencies and lack of departmental control over projects.
While 5,222 mobile classrooms were needed to ease congestion, only 3,111 had been provided by the provincial education departments.
But the plan included moving away from mobile classrooms which were hot in summer, targeted by vandals and easily damaged by pupils.
The document stated that the building of classrooms through the direct transfer of funds to schools had more advantages, including direct job creation, real-time project management and monitoring by school principals, and community ownership.
“Provinces will be responsible for the selection of schools that will benefit from the programme on a priority scale and consideration should be given to those that are still using the rotational timetable, and where there is overcrowding.”
It will allow schools to access local suppliers and create employment for local people, which all makes sense.
— Anthea Cereseto, CEO, Governing Body Foundation
CEO of the Governing Body Foundation Anthea Cereseto welcomed the move, saying “provincial education departments struggle with procurement processes and schools can get things going faster”.
“It will allow schools to access local suppliers and create employment for local people, which all makes sense.”
But she warned that there should not be a “free for all”, adding: “It’s not a sum of money that can be diverted to personal interests; it will have to be monitored very carefully. The tender and procurement processes must be well controlled.
“It’s a faster way to get additional classrooms. If it can be done in an accountable and efficient cost-saving manner without compromising quality, I think we have to support it.”
Matakanye Matakanye, general secretary of the National Association of School Governing Bodies (NASGB), who also welcomed the proposed initiative, said schools were public entities, “so I think communities must join hands with the government and build the schools”.
“The tender system is very prolonged and it will be quicker building classrooms through the governing body.”
He said the NASGB and the department must ensure serious monitoring of schools so tenders were not given to family members and relatives of governing body members.
Jaco Deacon, CEO of the Federation of Governing Bodies of SA Schools (Fedsas), declined to comment, saying they were still busy with internal documents with the department.
“But we hope and trust that governing bodies can contribute meaningfully to resolve the overcrowding in schools.”
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