Building more than 30 early childhood development centres and refurbishing 20 special needs schools are among 556 multi-year projects valued at R6.6bn that the education department is engaged in this financial year.
Over half of the projects aim to provide water, toilets and electricity to schools.
Some of the work started back in 2012 and is nearing completion, while some is yet to be rolled out.
The department – under fire for underspending its infrastructure budget and failing to meet the national schools norms and standards deadlines – has an infrastructure backlog of R71bn.
The backlog on basic services at Eastern Cape schools is R2.5bn.
An annual infrastructure budget of R1.5bn makes it virtually impossible to clear the backlog.
But head of infrastructure Tsepo Pefole is adamant that there will be no underspending this year, and all projects are set to meet their deadlines.
“Under the current leadership, underspending is never going to happen.
“We have a healthy pipeline of projects. Some are in tender,” he said.
“There is a bit of a crunch, given the escalation and the variation to the projects because when you get to the ground we find that projects have changed and the cost has increased.
“And what is happening to the rand also has an effect,” he said.
There are plans to bring water, electricity and sanitation to 261 schools at a cost of R802m.
“Everything we do is to conform with the norms and standards.
“The 261 projects are just the little we could do with the plethora of priorities we have.”
More than half a million is budgeted for building new classrooms needed in the schools realignment programme.
Pefole said the 33 early childhood development centres (Grade R) valued at R490m were under construction across the department’s 12 districts and would be completed by the next financial year.
The centres consist of a classroom, teachers’ office, store room and age-appropriate toilets, and are fenced off on the school premises.
Other projects include:
Refurbishment and construction of hostels (R505m);
Refurbishment of 20 special needs schools and construction of a new one (R337m);
Construction of new schools (R1.8bn); and
Planning and maintenance (R1.3bn).