Our campaign for implementation of the norms and standards for school infrastructure is called the Michael Komape Campaign, and is named after a 5-year-old learner who died last (2014) year when he fell into a dilapidated pit latrine at his primary school in rural Limpopo. Like Komape, hundreds of thousands of learners attend school in unsafe conditions, which are completely unsuited to learning. Every delay in fixing our schools constitutes a decision to delay the provisioning of human rights and justice to South Africa’s learners.
At the end of this month, 29 November 2015, it will be two years since the Minister officially adopted Norms and Standards for School Infrastructure. 29 November 2015 also marks one year till the end of the first timeframe of the Norms and Standards which states: by the end of November 2016, all schools with no water, electricity and sanitation will have to be provided with these services, and all schools made entirely out of mud, wood, and asbestos will need to be rebuilt.
This video documents some of our efforts in making sure the Norms and Standards are implemented both through the Michael Komape Campaign and the Sanitation Campaign in Gauteng. It also gives perspectives from teachers, parents and learners who have to use these schools with poor infrastructure. The video also contains interviews from our organisers and staff members who have been integral in the Norms and Standards Campaign.
The video is by the New Media Advocacy Project (NMap), a non-profit social enterprise that advances human rights and social justice through digital video and other media tools. Equal Education partnered with NMap to document conditions at schools, and capture accounts from learners, teachers, principals, and parents of the negative impact that inadequate infrastructure has on learning.
The video is available to view on this youtube link: https://youtu.be/Y0uS9MY0hO0
For more information contact:
Lumkile Zani (Head of the Eastern Cape office) – 084 607 5336
David Carel (Deputy Head of the Eastern Cape office)- 071 041 3336
Nombulelo Nyathela (Spokesperson) -060 503 4933
