Dozens of members of the education lobby group, Equal Education, held a sleep-in outside the provincial offices of the Department of Education iin Zwelitsha in King Williams Town yesterday.
The protest is part of a coordinated national campaign to compel the Department of Basic Education to meet the deadlines set by the courts for the publication of the norms and standards for school infrastructure in the provinces.
The Eastern Cape in particular has the most mud-structure and inappropriately built schools in the country.
Daniel Linde of Equal Education says they presented a memorandum to Department officials.
He said the memorandum, iner alia, called on the Department to publish the Norms and Standards for School Infrastructure in all nine provinces without further delay.
Linde said they would decide on Thursday what their next course of action will be.
Earlier this week, Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshekga, took a dig at Equal Education describing the NGO's sleep-in protest as "attention seeking".
"The Department has nothing to hide, and it is unfortunate thThe Department has nothing to hide, and it is unfortunate that some organisations want the plans to be rushed at the expense of internal processes," the Department of Basic Education said.
" The insinuations by these organisations that Minister Motshekga and the MECs are hiding something are misleading, devoid of truth and disingenous.at some organisations want the plans to be rushed at the expense of internal processes. The insinuations by these organisations that Minister Motshekga and the MECs are hiding something are misleading, devoid of truth and disingenous."
