A NUMBER of foreign and central government-aided programmes are helping to raise education standards in the Eastern Cape. In a progress report on the national Education Department, Minister Kader Asmal listed the Japanese Grant-Aid Programme (JGAP) and European Union (EU) funded school-building programme as among projects that are being deployed in the province as from the 2002 financial year. The JGAP will facilitate the building of 179 classrooms and 287 toilet booths at schools in the province, with 119 rainwater tanks to be supplied. It will also ensure the buildings are fully equipped, furnished and fenced. A EU-funded Eastern Cape school-building programme, amounting to about R65 million, is being used for repairs to tornado-damaged schools in the province, and is expected to be completed by November next year. The Ikhwelo poverty alleviation project, in the Eastern Cape and Limpopo provinces, has trained 2 253 adults in applied agriculture and small, medium and micro enterprises, with R59-million in the 2002/03 financial year to be used to fund trainers and buy agricultural and sewing equipment for training purposes. Asmal said the Thuba Makote project, launched in April, which targeted poor rural communities, would also see the establishment of a multi-functional centre in the Eastern Cape. The centre, one of 18 to be built in the country, was aimed at centres of skills transfer and job-creation for particularly women, the disabled and the youth.