Eradicating pit toilets top of Gwarube's priorities

Basic education minister Siviwe Gwarube says she wants to prioritise eradicating pit toilets in schools, saying this was something that was close to her heart.

Speaking to 702's Bongani Bingwa on Thursday morning, Gwarube said she still could not understand how there could be children drowning in pit toilets in 30 years into democracy.

“But I am also mindful that is not something that is always within the ambit of the department of education, so that is why I am keen to use my seat at the cabinet table to push my colleagues in public works, whom I have already spoken to, to say 'you have to help me in making sure that we eradicating this'.

“There are probably about 4,000 pit toilets in SA,” she said.

Speaking about her excitement in her new job, Gwarube said this was an opportunity she was not taking lightly.

“There are some things that I am coming in that I want to champion, but there are already existing departmental challenges that I need to get stuck into,” she said.

Gwarube also said not everyone has been able to access good quality education in the past 30 years, and that needed to change. 

"...because otherwise, we are locking an entire generation of poor black children to a future that is not equipping them for the economy,” she said. 

Gwarube also listed some of the challenges facing the department which includes literacy and numeracy. 

She said: “We know that most grade 4 learners that were tested cannot read for meaning and if we are not getting right at the beginning of the foundation phase, then it means the learners are going through the entire schooling foundation system already with the foundation that is shacky, so I will want to see huge interventions of how we will improve literacy and numeracy in schools.”

Gwarube also said she would ensure that her department continues the process of the curriculum review. She said she would bring to the table industry experts to advise on how to overhaul the curriculum as a whole and not just doing it in a piecemeal fashion.

Gwarube said she would also be cultivating good relationships with various trade unions, saying they would “find one another”. 

“If our goal is to put the learner at the centre of all that we do, then we will certainly find one another,” she said. 

chabalalaj@sowetan.co.za