‘Rich’ schools

Limpopo’s better-off schools are reeling after the province opted to stop suppling study materials

Limpopo’s more wealthy schools will be forced to increase tuition fees drastically next year following a decision by the provincial education department not to supply textbooks any longer.

Principals of quintile four and five (fee-paying) schools, including former Model C institutions, were informed in a letter by Ndiambani Mutheiwana, acting head of the Limpopo education department, on May 26 that they could only use 40% of the funds they receive from the department to buy stationery and textbooks.

One Limpopo principal, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals, said his school’s fees would have to go up by almost 50% next year to cover the cost of buying textbooks.

“We will have no option but to increase school fees if the department insists that quintile four and five schools must buy textbooks. We are bound to spend over R2-million — which we don’t have in our coffers — for next year on textbooks.”

Quintile four and five schools charge fees, whereas quintile one, two and three schools do not. Quintile one refers to the “poorest” schools and quintile five schools are the “least poor”.

According to the national norms for this year, provincial education departments were expected to allocate R1 177 for every child attending a quintile one, two or three school — the poorer schools. The amount allocated per learner drops to R590 for a quintile four school and R204 for a quintile five school.

But not all provincial education departments adhere to the national norms. Limpopo’s education MEC, Ishmael Kgetjepe, announced during his budget speech in April that quintile four schools would receive an allocation of only R483.59 for each child instead of R590, and quintile five schools would get R167.21 instead of R204.

This means a quintile four school would be able to spend only R193.44 (40% of R483) per learner from the state’s allocation on textbooks, and a quintile five school would be allotted a miserly R66.88 per learner for this purpose.

In contrast, the department earmarked R596-million to buy stationery and textbooks for learners in nofee schools.

“I can’t feel happy because this [the