OVERVIEW OF CURRENT PROGRAMMES AND STRATEGIC PRIORITIES

1
OVERVIEW OF CURRENT PROGRAMMES AND STRATEGIC
PRIORITIES
2

COMPLETED AND CURRENT PROGRAMMES

• RECONSTRUCTION OF FLOOD-DAMAGED SCHOOLS
• R11,2 million has been allocated by Government
  for the reconstruction of flood-damaged schools
  in the Northern Province, Mpumalanga and
  KwaZulu-Natal. All the funds have been committed
  and reconstruction work in all three provinces is
  nearly completed.
• R 89 million assistance has been provided by
  donors for the reconstruction of flood-damaged
  schools.

3
COMPLETED AND CURRENT PROGRAMMES

• SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION
• The Department of Education was successful in its
  application for a special allocation from the
  Poverty Relief, Infrastructure Investment and
  Jobs Summits fund. The Thuba Makote project
  entails the building of multi-purpose education
  and community centres in areas of greatest need
  (nodal points preferably) in all nine provinces
  over a three year period to the value of R146
  million. Allocations per financial year are R48
  m for 2001/2002 R34 m for 2002/2003 and R64 m
  for 2003/2004.
• The Japanese Grant Aid funding for school
  infrastructure development has been allocated to
  the Northern Province, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal
  and the Eastern Cape. The assistance amounts to
  infrastructure developments of approximately R50
  million in each of the four provinces, totaling
  R200 million. Implementation is underway. The
  Japanese Government contracts a Japanese firm
  for implementation, who then sub-contract a South
  African firm for the construction work.

4
COMPLETED AND CURRENT PROGRAMMES

• ELECTRIFICATION
• The Department of Education also participates in
  the National Electrification Planning and
  Implementation Task Team and made inputs to the
  Draft National Schools and Clinics
  Electrification Strategy 2 000. The strategy
  requests a budget of R115 million per annum from
  the National Electrification Fund to ensure the
  electrification of 1 700 schools per annum. The
  strategy covers a 10 year electrification plan to
  eliminate the backlog of 17 000 schools without
  electricity. It costs approximately R64 000 to
  electrify a school. The strategy still has to be
  approved.
• SANITATION
• The Department of Education participates in the
  review of the sanitation policy to ensure that
  school sanitation needs are also addressed.
  Provincial consultations are underway.

5
COMPLETED AND CURRENT PROGRAMMES

• IMPROVING PLANNING CAPACITY
• The EU indicated that they would contribute R1
  million for a research project supporting the
  planning of farm school infrastructure
  provisioning. The details need to be worked out.
• The EU also indicated that they would be willing
  to contribute R1 m towards research to support a
  capital development plan. A possibility is to
  utilise this funding for the development of a
  capital development policy and norms and
  standards for school buildings.
• The Department of Education approached USAID to
  fund a service provider to assist provinces in
  the development of business plans. USAID
  indicated recently that they could contract and
  fund such a service provider directly. The formal
  request for such assistance has been sent through
  to USAID. Response is awaited.
• A survey is underway to reconstruct a database on
  capital developments and expenditure trends in
  capital developments since 1994. The project will
  be funded through the USAID SASA Grant.

6
STRATEGIC PRIORITIES

• Priorities identified for the present planning
  phase
• Maintenance should receive priority.
• Public schools on private property as well as
  viable small schools should receive due attention
  in priority lists. Water and sanitation are the
  two services most neglected in public schools.
• Nodal areas identified for targeting by the
  2001/2002 to 2003/2004 Tirisano Implementation
  plan should receive priority attention.
• Population demographics and population mobility
  should be considered in the prioritisation of
  school upgrading as well as new infrastructure
  developments.

7
STRATEGIC PRIORITIES

• In view of the Cholera epidemic schools in high
  risk cholera areas should be prioritised for
  water and sanitation provisioning. The high risk
  cholera areas have been identified by the
  Department of Water Affairs and Forestry and are
  available on the GIS database of the DoE. A
  detailed report has been developed for
  KwaZulu-Natal.
• Security at schools in high crime areas should
  receive attention.
• New approaches to the design and building of
  schools should be considered. Various
  organisations have developed innovative designs
  and building materials to ensure low maintenance
  needs, adaptation of school buildings to suit the
  requirements of outcomes-based education,
  adapting designs to provide shared community
  facilities, and ensuring that buildings are
  adapted to be accessible for LSEN).
• OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
• The costs of consultants in the building of
  school infrastructure is extraordinarily high
  and indications are that large savings can be
  achieved in this regard. One example is to have
  standard designs for modules which can then be
  adapted for each particular site.

8
STRATEGIC PRIORITIES

• A full package should be provided when building
  new schools, including classrooms, administrative
  areas, water, sanitation, furniture, equipment,
  drainage, landscaping, fencing as well as a basic
  supply of learning support materials.
• The provision of basic sport facilities is an
  important priority. Need to investigate the
  possibility of sharing sport facilities.
• School beautification has been identified as a
  Tirisano priority and should be budgeted for in
  the capital development plan.
• Existing schools in a weak or very weak condition
  pose a risk to the safety of learners and should
  be prioritised for upgrading or reconstruction.
• Where additional donor funding has been acquired,
  provinces should ensure that provincial capital
  funds as well as donor funds are spent within the
  anticipated time frames.
• In some instances the installation of solar
  systems have not delivered the expected results
  due to vandalism and a lack of maintenance.
• Vandalism remains a serious problem.

9
MOBILISING ADDITIONAL FUNDING

• The Infrastructure Grant of R1,5 billion has been
  allocated to provinces, whereafter each province
  has the responsibility to divide their portion
  between the different functions within the
  province, including Education. The final amount
  available to the Education function will
  therefore only be known once the allocations have
  been determined in each province. The
  understanding is that 40 of the allocation to
  each province would be allocated to Education,
  but deviations from the agreed upon percentages
  are possible through bilateral agreements between
  a province and the National Treasury. This is,
  however, not a final ruling and there is a view
  that the percentage should be more prescriptive.
  (Information provided by National Treasury on the
  Infrastructure Grant on 6 April 2001)
• Considerable donor funding has served to bolster
  total capital expenditure. Part figures are
  reflected earlier in this report.