Infrastructure issues 'plague education'

He say these are now affecting the Education Department today. Speaking during teachers' association - Naptosa's Annual General Meeting in Durban on Friday, Wedekind says 21 years into democracy, the country is not at a point where each school has electricity and functioning toilets.

He has highlighted this as an example of the infrastructure legacy left by apartheid.

"We have the capacity and the money in the country to deal with those sorts of things. We have been able host events like the soccer world cup at world class stadiums so we can build schools and toilets if we have the will", he said.

"I do not thinks we can blame every problem in the education system in the past. We have created problems within the new system but of course there are things we have not been able to address from the past".

The professor says however there are also some positive signs.

"In the higher education system we still have world class universities. There is a lot of work that is going into the vocational education system", he said.

"Within the schooling system there is new recognition that we need to start investing in things like we have tended to neglected over the past 20 years", Wedekind said.

(Photo: Gallo images)