Gauteng DID is accelerating construction, refurbishment of public schools

The Gauteng Department of Infrastructure Development (DID) says it is accelerating the construction and refurbishment of public schools in the province. This after some schools in the province have been battling with service delivery challenges including overcrowding.

In a brief statement on social media the department posted that it is making progress in schools such as Braamfischerville Primary School in Soweto, Transoranje School for the Deaf in Pretoria West, Laerskool Frikkie Meyer in Emfuleni, Lakeside Primary School, Emfuleni and Tsako Thabo Sec School in Mamelodi among others.

“DID is accelerating the delivery of classrooms in the province on an ongoing basis to address overcrowding and school infrastructure backlog. The construction of new classrooms and rehabilitation of old schools is an innovative infrastructure delivery model transforming our school infrastructure into a world class standard,” the department said.

This comes just as the new school term has begun amid chaos and frustration from parents whose children were yet to be placed on the first week of the school term. On Tuesday, DA’s shadow MEC of education Khume Ramulifho following his oversight visits to various schools in Ekurhuleni, Kempton Park and other parts of the province said overcrowding was a big concern adding that the Department of Education was failing desperate learners in the process.

“The Gauteng Department of Education's failure to meet its promises to supply schools with sufficient resources for the 2023 academic year has compromised learning and teaching at Ekurhuleni schools. He said his visits, which continue this week, found that Laerskool and Hoërskool Birchleigh, and Phomolong Secondary were three schools in Ekurhuleni which were on high demand for learner placement but were still in need for more classrooms.

“Despite this, the department has yet again failed to supply these schools with additional mobile classrooms even though it made a promise to Laerskool Birchleigh to fund the school for additional classes. “We understand that learner placement is the biggest issue basic education is dealing with now. However, we demand that GDE equally meet its demand for schools to accommodate learners to match the number of classrooms, furniture, and stationery it supplies,” he said.

He said some of the schools still and asbestos infrastructure instead of bricks and mortar as per the approved norms and standards. “In Laerskool Birchleigh and Hoërskool Birchleigh the schools are still partially using asbestos infrastructure for classrooms which is unacceptable. “Moreover, the long wait for additional mobile classrooms and chairs at Phomolong Secondary is frustrating the educators while they are expected to produce good results while teaching in an unconducive learning environment.

“In Phomolong Secondary, the most vulnerable parents fund-raised money from their pockets so their children could have an additional 200 chairs,” Ramulifho added. He added that the DA was concerned that communities were sitting with a huge responsibility of maintaining and upgrading their schools while the government failed to supply resources.