The Democratic Alliance (DA) has discovered a number of schools in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) that should never have reopened this week. This is due to a complete lack of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), including sanitisers and soap, along with major infrastructure challenges – some as a result of recent violent unrest.
The findings were made during the KZN Legislature School Functionality oversight inspections this week and which saw MPLs visit schools across the province.
While the DA expected to find challenges, particularly after the recent unrest in our province, we did not anticipate the complete absence of basic Covid-19 items and protocols within some schools. In fact, the situation is so bad that one could be forgiven for not knowing that we are still in the midst of a life-threatening global health pandemic.
Essentially, what this means is that it is not safe for all KZN’s learners to return to many primary schools. This is further evidenced by the following;
• A large number of schools in the Umlazi district are without PPE – a fact confirmed by a district official. A similar situation exists within the King Cetshwayo district.
• Further Covid-19 protocol challenges include no evidence of desk separators and many handwashing stations have no soap.
• There is also no disinfectant whatsoever at Boom Street school or at Martin Nxumalo school in the Pietermaritzburg area.
• Physical distancing between learners at primary schools visited is almost non-existent, with not enough classrooms (view here – Mpiyakhe High School, Mbazwana).
• Some schools have thermometers that are not working, while screeners claim that they have not been paid and;
• Food handlers employed as part of the National Schools’ Nutrition Programme (NSNP) also claim that they have not been paid.
There is nothing that can excuse this complete lack of adherence. PPE is centrally sourced which means that the buck stops with MEC Kwazi Mshengu and his HOD, Dr EV Nzama. With almost all of KZN’s learners due back at school, they have no time to waste in dealing with this.
During the inspections, MPLs also saw for themselves the impact of the recent unrest, which saw some 150 KZN schools looted or destroyed. This is a major setback for the DoE and the DA is fully committed to assisting in rebuilding our province’s learning institutions.
What the MEC and his Department must not do now is make excuses for its failure to deliver such as the age-old one of lack of funding – or the more recent one that it’s the Covid pandemic.
During the recent KZN Education budget debate, the DA raised several cost-saving measures aimed at freeing up funding for critical areas. Unfortunately, at the time, the MEC chose his party politics over potential benefits.
We now implore the MEC and his HOD to heed our advice which could mean savings of potentially hundreds of millions of Rands. There are many schools which must be rebuilt (view video here – Siphosethu Primary School) so that our learners can continue to receive an education.
While the focus of the oversights was primarily on Covid-19 protocols and the impact of the unrest, it cannot be ignored that as many as 90% of the issues reported during the February school functionality oversights have still not been addressed (view here – Moses Zikhali School educator toilets). What this says is that this ANC-run Legislature programme has become a tick box exercise while also exposing the inability to deliver on time.
The reality is that, along with both the national and provincial governments, the DoE in KZN was caught napping. Certainly, the MEC and his HOD’s much-lauded school security plan has been exposed for what it is – a weak and inadequate exercise.
What the past few days of school inspections have shown is that there are thousands upon thousands of KZN learners who are still being failed by a government which over-promises and under-delivers. This has to change. Their very futures and that of our country depend on it.
