Underfunded schools battling

Institutions have not allocated the required money for each pupil

NO-FEE schools in three provinces in the country are grossly underfunded, and a provincial Education Department being in the news – for allegedly paying inflated prices for services – presents the worst case.

KwaZulu-Natal allocated just R955 to no-fee schools for each pupil, while the national norms and standards stipulated that this figure should be R1 466 for 2020.

This money was allocated to schools’ non-personnel funds. The money was brought in to cushion schools that do not charge fees from the daily financial pressures.

Schools used the funds for services, such as electricity, infrastructure maintenance, and paying clerks and additional teachers.

The Northern Cape and Mpumalanga were two other provinces not complying with the nationally set allocation of R1 466 for each pupil in a no-fee school.

Mpumalanga authorities set aside R1 370 per pupil and the Northern Cape paid out R1 134.

Gauteng made up one of the six provinces that gave poor schools the required R1 466 for each pupil.

Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga revealed this data in a written reply to Parliamentary questions.

The DA’s Désirée van der Walt asked Motshekga if the government had data on the costs deemed adequate for public schools to meet their dayto-day obligations.

Motshekga’s reply focused on the set allocations to schools.

“It should be noted that KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and Northern Cape are not funding at the required levels of funding,” she said.

“No-fee schools, that are underfunded, have a right to charge compulsory fees in terms of paragraph 163 of the National Norms and Standards for School Funding. To date, there is no record of a school that acted on this right,” said Motshekga

Despite underfunding schools, the KwaZulu-Natal Education Department has been in the news several times for allegedly paying inflated prices to service providers.

Suppliers of Covid-19 personal protective equipment were allegedly overpaid. The department admitted to paying R28 000 per 5 000l water tank and R6 500 per hand washing station. It was criticised on grounds that a water tank actually costs about R4 000.

Spokesperson for the KwaZulu-Natal Education Department Muzi Mahlambi did not respond to comment requests at the time of publication.

Mpumalanga Education Department spokesperson Jasper Zwane also did not comment. He said he awaited information from relevant officials.

The Northern Cape Education Department blamed its underfunding of poor schools on a number of factors, chief among them being the increase of schools declared as no-fee.

Spokesperson Geoffrey van der Merwe said: “The additional no-fee schools resulted in an increased funding for the Norms and Standards allocations.”

Van der Merwe said their deficit for the current school education ran into millions of rand.

“The shortfall in funding no-fee schools, at the minimum national per capita, is R53 million for the 2020/2021 financial year.”

But the department tried its best to support underfunded schools, he said.

“Although schools are underfunded, additional resourcing mechanisms, such as compensation for fee exemptions, bailing out schools for outstanding municipal services accounts, learning and teaching materials and software, minor maintenance and repairs – which should have been catered for by the allocations – are provided by the department from its own internal budget.”