NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES
FOR WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION 517
DATE OF PUBLICATION OF INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: 29/10/2011
(INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: 33/2011)
Mr M J R de Villiers (DA-WC) to ask the Minister of Basic Education:
(1) In each province, which (a) primary and (b) secondary schools
have a (i) library and/or (ii) laboratory that is being funded
by (aa) her department or (bb) the Department of Public Works;
(2) whether all these (a) libraries and (b) laboratories have been
supplied with (i) educational equipment and (ii) furniture; if
not, (aa) why not, (bb) which ones were not furnished and (cc)
when will they be supplied with equipment and furniture; if so,
what are the relevant details;
(3) what are the (a) time frames and (b) plans to ensure that all
schools in each province are equipped with a library and
laboratory? CW620
RESPONSE
1) (a) and (b) (i) and (ii)
Data from the NEIMS database indicates the total number of
libraries and laboratories, See table below (2006). All school
libraries and laboratories are funded by the provincial
departments of education.
|Province |Total number of |With |Stocked |
| |schools (primary & | | |
| |secondary) | | |
| | |Librar|Laborator|Librar|Laborator|
| | |y |y |y |y |
|Eastern |5676 |549 |493 |168 |110 |
|Cape | | | | | |
|Free State |1615 |422 |337 |151 |103 |
|Gauteng |2031 |1191 |813 |385 |287 |
|KwaZulu-Nat|5931 |1199 |719 |363 |221 |
|al | | | | | |
|Limpopo |3923 |293 |235 |95 |59 |
|Mpumalanga |1868 |323 |213 |133 |53 |
|North West |1674 |321 |269 |106 |72 |
|Northern |611 |179 |180 |72 |67 |
|Cape | | | | | |
|Western |1464 |775 |513 |382 |259 |
|Cape | | | | | |
|Total |24793 |5252 |3772 |1855 |1231 |
2) The table above indicates the total number of libraries and
laboratories supplied with equipment and those without
equipment. Provision of equipment and furniture for these
facilities is a provincial competence and is dependent upon
the availability of budget in PEDs.
3) DBE through its Action Plan to 2014; Towards the
realisation of Schooling 2025, with specific focus on the
Accelerated School Infrastructure Delivery Initiative
(ASIDI) aims at eliminating the backlog of schools
infrastructure, where existing schools do not meet the
Basic Functionality standards. The initiative is aimed at
accelerating the delivery of schools infrastructure to meet
sector strategic targets. An allocation of R8, 2 billion
was made available to fund the ASIDI programme. This
allocation allows PEDs to redirect funds initially intended
for basic services and inappropriate structures to cater
for specialised rooms such as Libraries and laboratories.
The target is to expand the provision of critical teaching
and learning spaces that are essential to enhance teaching
and learning outcomes and that by 2025, all schools in the
country should be at the optimum level of provision.