Department of Basic Education rejects false reports about ASIDI school delivery programme, 10 October 2013

The Department of Basic Education will continue to replace mud schools and build new state of the art schools and hand them over to the communities. The Department will not be distracted by the work of non-government organisations whose task is to misinform the public about the work of government for their own selfish interest (see here).

It is clear that the organization does not understand how government works and it misses the opportunity of educating the public and instead chooses a mischievous route of twisting the facts for ulterior motives.

From July 17 2013 the Department has been handing over one school a week built under the Accelerated School Infrastructure Delivery Initiative (ASIDI). The schools are being built to replace mud schools particularly in the Eastern Cape.

How it works

In the built environment one talks about practical completion of buildings followed by works completion. At practical completion stage, a building is ready for occupation and can be used by the intended beneficiaries. The government, mindful of the need for learners to receive new facilities and get on with learning allows Principals to take beneficial occupation. At the appropriate time, however, the government officially hands a school over to the local community, school governing body and the school principal in a formal ceremony. That is what the Deputy Minister was referring to.

The formal hand over of a school is a milestone that needs to be celebrated by government and local community alike, given that the people are finally being rewarded with brand new modern schools after building mud schools in defiance of the apartheid regime which denied them access to facilities. Celebrating success is not being disingenuous.

The government has been very transparent in this with the Department of Basic Education's website regularly communicating progress on the first batch of 49 schools and explaining the reasons for delays. Numerous press statements also attest to this.

All ASIDI schools are provided with rain water harvesting tanks strategically located throughout the school property. In addition, elevated water tanks are provided at every school. The purpose of elevated water tanks is to provide storage for one of the following options:

• Municipal water supply where available and reliable
• Borehole water harvesting where feasible or
• Municipal water carting where feasible

As for the schedule, the department provided a schedule for the official handover of schools, for internal use, but this does not mean that the schedule was cast in stone. The availability of officials to hand schools over and various other reasons may necessitate changes in the schedule. The official handover is carrying on and all schools will be officially handed over in ceremonies that allow the people to celebrate a new age even after the community has taken occupation. In Africa, commemoration of events by communities is not only important, it is certainly appropriate given the history of the country and the people will continue celebrate success as the healing from the lingering effects of apartheid continues.

Statement issued by the Department of Basic Education, October 10 2013

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