KZN scrambles to repair damaged schools before start of academic year
The provincial government will be installing mobile classrooms to the 147 schools that were damaged due to extreme weather
The KwaZulu-Natal government is in a race against time to repair 147 schools that were damaged due to extreme weather before the start of the academic year.
Sihle Zikalala, Premier of KZN, has set 13 January as the deadline for the affected schools to be fitted with mobile classrooms.
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Schools are set to open on 15 January.
“Yesterday, we held joyous celebrations across the length and breadth of our province as we recorded a historic 81% improvement in the matric pass rate. We indicated yesterday that the celebrations are now over and work to sustain and improve our academic performance as a province commences today,” said Zikalala.
Zikalala was joined by Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Minister of Co-Operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, at the Harry Gwala district municipality which suffered the most damage with 15 schools severely damaged.
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Dlamini-Zuma said that the government is working on bolstering manpower and other initiatives aimed at improving disaster management responses
“In one of the schools, there was a parents meeting and they appreciated that government was really concerned and that their kids will be in school whether temporary or otherwise, but they will have a class,” she said.
The office of the premier also revealed that as of November 2019 to 9 January, there were 445 weather and fire-related reported incidents to disaster management centres, 6766 households damaged, about 30 000 people affected, 193 injuries recorded and 44 fatalities.
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