One South Africa Chief Activist Mmusi Maimane says government needs to build partnerships with the private sector to ensure quality education for poorer children.
Speaking ahead of the release of the 2021 Grade 12 results this evening, Maimane said poor children are still disadvantaged by a lack of proper education facilities.
He says this forces parents from especially townships, to send their children far from where they live.
“We have failed to develop educational infrastructure. We haven’t built enough schools. We haven’t built enough quality schools. No child wants to go to a school that’s got a pit latrine. Of course, naturally, they are going to want to move and go somewhere else.”
“So we have to build proper infrastructure. I’ve always held the view that there must be a better partnership between government and the private sector to ensure that we can broaden the number of schools that are available. We can give better access to young people and we can ensure that parents can apply at those schools easily,” he adds.
Earlier, some learners called on government to fix infrastructure at schools.
Lobby group Equal Education hosted an online Children’s Conference to try and bring together learners and education officials from different provinces in a bid to address some of the challenges they face as a result of COVID-19.
Video: Concern is raised over the state of Eastern Cape schools’ toilets.
In January 2014, 6-year-old Michael Komape died after falling into a pit toilet at school.
