Pretoria – Education stakeholders have been invited to study the draft on minimum uniform norms and standards for school infrastructure and provide comments by 11 October 2013.
This comes after Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga approved the draft regulations.
These draft regulations were published in the Government Gazette for public comments on Thursday, 12 September.
The comments received will be studied and evaluated, and, where appropriate, incorporated in the draft regulations.
The final set of regulations is expected to be published on or before 30 November.
“The objectives of the regulations will be to guide the provisioning of an enabling physical teaching and learning environment that is sustainable and equitable for all learners in South Africa and, therefore, improve access to quality education facilities,” Motshekga said.
The regulations provide for a process and timeframes in terms of which provincial education departments need to implement the norms and standards.
“Certain norms and standards, namely, the availability of classrooms, electricity, water, sanitation and perimeter security are to be prioritised,” Motshekga said.
The draft regulations state that members of the executive council of provincial education departments will be required to annually provide detailed plans on the manner in which the norms and standards are to be implemented and to report to the minister annually on the implementation of their plans.
The design of infrastructure, products, environments, programmes and services needs to be usable by all in order to address the diversity of learners and teachers with functional limitations.
Furthermore, schools for learners with special education needs must comply with the requirements related to the nature of the specialised support programme offered at the school.
Design considerations for educational spaces and educational support spaces, such as natural day lighting, the avoidance of glare, ventilation, acoustic conditions and background noise and reverberation also feature prominently in the regulations.
The Department of Basic Education must periodically review the norms and standards contained in the regulations to ensure that they remain current. – SAnews.gov.za
