PUPILS and educators are expected to mount an equal education-supported protest march on the Eastern Cape education department in Bisho today.
Sowetan has learnt from a statement released at the weekend by education lobby group Education for All that the picket has been prompted by a lack of school infrastructure in Eastern Cape Schools.
"On Monday 4 July 2011 learners and teachers from schools around Libode and King William's Town will hold a picket outside the Bisho provincial legislature, where they will raise issues such as the dire lack of basic resources at their schools," the Education for All statement said.
"The picket, which will also be supported by Equal Education, will follow after a weekend camp where the learners and teachers will come together to discuss the problems they face at schools, the difficulties of having to work under such poor conditions and what it is that they can do together to ensure that government hears their concerns.
"The learners come from schools where there is a lack of electricity, water and sanitation, insufficient classrooms, no libraries, no computer centres or science laboratories. Education for All has said that many of the affected learners were attending school in so called mud schools, where the infrastructure problems are the worst in the country. The Eastern Cape is the most neglected province in the country in terms of school infrastructure.
"It is the province with the second highest number of schools. Of these schools, there are 395 mud schools (out of 400 identified by the Department of Basic Education, across the country), over 1100 schools have no electricity, over 1100 schools have no access to water, and over 500 schools still have no toilets at all.
"These are some of the realities these learners and teachers face on a daily basis."
Pupils, teachers march on Bhisho
PUPILS and educators are expected to mount an equal education-supported protest march on the Eastern Cape education department in Bisho today.
Sowetan has learnt from a statement released at the weekend by education lobby group Education for All that the picket has been prompted by a lack of school infrastructure in Eastern Cape Schools.
"On Monday 4 July 2011 learners and teachers from schools around Libode and King William's Town will hold a picket outside the Bisho provincial legislature, where they will raise issues such as the dire lack of basic resources at their schools," the Education for All statement said.
"The picket, which will also be supported by Equal Education, will follow after a weekend camp where the learners and teachers will come together to discuss the problems they face at schools, the difficulties of having to work under such poor conditions and what it is that they can do together to ensure that government hears their concerns.
"The learners come from schools where there is a lack of electricity, water and sanitation, insufficient classrooms, no libraries, no computer centres or science laboratories. Education for All has said that many of the affected learners were attending school in so called mud schools, where the infrastructure problems are the worst in the country. The Eastern Cape is the most neglected province in the country in terms of school infrastructure.
"It is the province with the second highest number of schools. Of these schools, there are 395 mud schools (out of 400 identified by the Department of Basic Education, across the country), over 1100 schools have no electricity, over 1100 schools have no access to water, and over 500 schools still have no toilets at all.
"These are some of the realities these learners and teachers face on a daily basis."
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