Pretoria – The Department of Basic Education (DBE) has welcomed the settlement reached with Equal Education on Thursday to publish Minimum Norms and Standards for School Infrastructure, as an order of court.
According to the department, the agreement comes into effect immediately, and allows the Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, to publish the norms and standards for public comment by 12 September 2013 and promulgate them by the end of November 2013.
The agreement follows continuous discussions between the DBE and Equal Education regarding the publication of the norms and standards for school infrastructure.
In 2012, the DBE submitted draft norms and standards to the Council of Education Ministers (CEM) for discussion and consideration. Various concerns were raised by Education MECs with regards to the norms being too optimal with regards to budgetary constraints and lack of flexibility.
CEM recommended that the draft norms be adopted as a framework to guide provinces.
The framework provides a basis for benchmarking school facilities, and serves as guidance on the basic mix of education resources required to facilitate the functionality of a school.
To date, all new school infrastructure in place complies with these draft norms.
However, Equal Education applied to the Bisho High Court to compel the Motshekga to proclaim the norms. The NGO argued that the draft norms did not have a binding effect on the department, and wanted them to be made into regulations that would bind the DBE.
Even though the South African Schools Act allows the minister the discretion to proclaim or not to proclaim minimum norms and standards, the Motshekga opted to publish regulations, given the DBE's commitment to providing minimum norms with regard to water, electricity and sanitation, among others.
To this end, an agreement was reached with Equal Education that the DBE would consult with MECs and other stakeholders and publish the regulations by 15 January 2013 for public comment.
The regulations were published for comment as per the agreement. However, approximately 35 submissions were received, which called for the DBE to apply its mind to issues raised in the submissions.
Motshekga was of the opinion that these submissions were substantive and required serious consideration, which included a final report from NEDLAC, which was only received after meeting with Equal Education.
CEM then called an urgent meeting with Equal Education to share perspectives and to discuss and understand their point of view.
An open and frank meeting took place where the minister re-emphasised the department's commitment to publishing the minimum norms and standards. – SAnews.gov.za
