MPow2.7183r : On the School Norms Draft Bill

Draft Norms - comments due 15 March 2013: http://www.info.gov.za/view/DownloadFileAction?id=181582

There does not seem to be much to comment at this point - 6 pages for actual doc. Compare with the Rwandan doc for example: “Child Friendly Schools Infrastructure Standards and Guidelines”

So there is clearly a lot of work to do. This is not my area of expertise or my day job - my interest is as a citizen.

Equaleducation.org.za appear to have been instrumental in the current initative to nudge forward school infrastructure development - see update on their site: http://www.equaleducation.org.za/node/765

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Can we determine how many toilets our school system needs?

Extract from MG article: "Equal Education's court papers stated that 93% of public schools have no libraries, almost 2 500 have no water supply, 46% still use pit latrines and 913 have no toilets at all.

Yet the eight-page draft norms [6 actually if you ignore the minister's covering letter] merely generalise about schools needing an "enabling teaching and learning environment", including "adequate sanitation facilities [and a] basic water supply".

The gazetted document does not stipulate any figures or quantities, such as the number of toilets required or the amount and type of power and water supplies relative to school size, nor does it give any implementation dates."

[http://mg.co.za/article/2013-01-11-angies-new-school-norms-a-slap-in-the-face]

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Screensnip from gov.org.za on 15 Jan: apparently it's all about football