In partnership with the department of basic education, the Eastern Cape provincial government plans to eradicate 300 pit toilets in 2026. Currently, the provincial government is dealing with the challenge of 427 schools that have pit toilets, which pose a serious risk to the lives of pupils.

The province also has 458 schools that were built with inappropriate material. Premier Oscar Mabuyane said that government was attending to the matter with the seriousness it deserved. In 2025, government completed the construction of 25 new schools in the Eastern Cape.

In January, government marked the start of the 2026 academic year by officially opening the new state-of-the-art Sitoza Senior Secondary

School in the deep rural areas of Dr AB Xuma Municipality. To enable both teachers and pupils to access the internet, Mabuyane announced that Telkom would donate 30 laptops to the school with routers.

In 2026, the construction of 57 more state-of-the-art schools with the latest technology will be completed for handover to communities. These include Lupindo High School in Alfred Nzo, David Livingstone in the Nelson Mandela Bay metro, Upper Corana in OR Tambo, Jongulwandle in Amathole and Khanyisa Special School in Chris Hani.

Going forward, government is accelerating the roll out of Early Childhood Development Programmes intended to help close the access gap, with over 130,000 children already enrolled in registered ECD programmes. We are currently recruiting 800 ECD practitioners with NQF level 6 qualifications to complement this work,” Mabuyane said.

The three-stream curriculum model which focuses on academic, vocational, and occupational pathways continues to be the main thrust of our basic education system to build a skilled human capital. Agriculture, the blue economy, tourism, digital technology, and energy sectors are where our province has comparative advantages, where we can create jobs. Therefore, what we teach our children from a young age should open pathways for them to these sectors and more,” he said.