YESTERDAY the government announced a multi-billion campaign to eradicate the existence of mud schools and deal with the perennial problem of potholes in our roads.
- R2,7 billion has been allocated for dealing with mud schools and the situation where learning in some rural areas still takes place under trees .
- Another R150 million has been set aside to deal with potholes throughout the country.
According to Deputy Minister of Public Works Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu, government had made inroads in reducing the number of mud classrooms from 3000 to 300.
These are noble efforts indeed that deserve an applause. While applauding the government we must, however, remain vigilant in ensuring that it lives up to its promises.
Our experience is that the government has the tendency to make these grand announcements only for us to learn later that it has not delivered on its promises.
One only has to look at what happened on the education front.
Earlier this year the Minister for Basic Education announced that it will be all systems go when schools reopen with all the pupils receiving the necessary learning materials.
Now we have media reports that millions of primary school pupils have still not received their basic literacy and numeracy workbooks - the very tools described by the minister as the most effective tools for teaching.
Such incompetence has, unfortunately, a far-reaching impact on, for example, the government's drive to improve the quality of education.
Little regard for schooling
YESTERDAY the government announced a multi-billion campaign to eradicate the existence of mud schools and deal with the perennial problem of potholes in our roads.
According to Deputy Minister of Public Works Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu, government had made inroads in reducing the number of mud classrooms from 3000 to 300.
These are noble efforts indeed that deserve an applause. While applauding the government we must, however, remain vigilant in ensuring that it lives up to its promises.
Our experience is that the government has the tendency to make these grand announcements only for us to learn later that it has not delivered on its promises.
One only has to look at what happened on the education front.
Earlier this year the Minister for Basic Education announced that it will be all systems go when schools reopen with all the pupils receiving the necessary learning materials.
Now we have media reports that millions of primary school pupils have still not received their basic literacy and numeracy workbooks - the very tools described by the minister as the most effective tools for teaching.
Such incompetence has, unfortunately, a far-reaching impact on, for example, the government's drive to improve the quality of education.
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