How do you run a school on about R6 per learner per day? Many schools will have to answer this question due to provincial education departments’ failure to pay over resource allocations to schools yet again.

          According to the National Norms and Standards for School Funding (NNSSF), provincial education departments must pay these resource allocations to public schools twice a year (before 15 May and before 15 November). Schools use the money for expenses such as stationary and textbooks, water and electricity, and multiple other expenses related to the running of a school.

          “Only three provinces paid all outstanding amounts to schools before or on 15 November. In other words, only the provincial education departments of the Western Cape, North-West and the Free State fulfilled their constitutional obligation towards our children. The other 66% of provinces failed yet again,” says Dr Jaco Deacon, CEO of the school governing body organisation FEDSAS.

          Deacon says this pattern of incompetence repeats itself every six months without any consequences for provincial heads of education and officials. “In the Northern Cape schools only received the first part of the 2025 payments now at the end of the year. All previous payments were for monies owed from the 2024 budget. Schools in this province have now received about 20% of the 2025 payments. This means that the new school year will yet again start without schools receiving all payments due.”

          In most of the provinces there were at least partial payments. “But every cent counts at a no-fee school that already only receives R8,77 per learner per day. If 25% of the money is held back, the amount of R6,57 per child per day is a slap in the face of our children.”

          Deacon says education expenditure is one of the biggest budget items approved by Parliament. “It is a disgrace that so little of this money actually reaches schools. We have to reconsider this clumsy, expensive structure with too many officials and too few educators and too little support for schools. There are simply too many bureaucrats who consume resources without making any contribution to quality education.”

          Disaster also looms with the compulsory Grade R with no additional funding for provinces to implement this BELA amendment. “It is clear that President Ramaphosa acted on incorrect information when he signed the full amended act into law. We foresee schools, principals and SGBs rushing to mitigate the consequences of politicians’ poor decision-making and planning.”

          The amended Schools’ Act criminalises parents whose children are not in a school at the required age. But what if there are no schools, or no space in schools? “FEDSAS is urgently appealing to the President to delay implementation with a few years to ensure sufficient funding, infrastructure, educators and support are available for this crucial phase,” says Deacon. 

          Even if there is momentum at national level, there is no guarantee that provincial education departments will fulfil their obligations. “If the payment of resource allocations is any indication, there should be serious concerns about the management of additional funding. Not to mention the fact that provincial education departments had to pay back some R150 million in unspent money this year!”

          Deacon says the Minister of Basic Education should crack the whip under MECs who allow schools and children to be disadvantaged. But the oversight role also rests with the President, who has to speak to the Premiers. Even Parliament’s portfolio committee failed our children this year by not looking at the core functions of the departments.

          “The systemic decay stretches wider than the national and provincial education departments and the victims are our vulnerable children and the future of our country.”