DR SHEETAL BHOOLA
Another year has passed, and the Department of Education has failed to meet its infrastructural targets of building and renovating schools in various provinces in South Africa.
Schools in the Eastern Cape, the provinces of Limpopo, North-West and Free State were neither refurbished nor constructed to meet the growing demands of our population. Statista (2024) has indicated that these provinces have fewer schools than the Western Cape, Gauteng, and KwaZulu-Natal.
Previous media reports have indicated that in many public schools, the infrastructure is crumbling and there is a definite lack of resources and teacher shortages, especially in rural areas. Yet, at almost every State of the Nation speech, our president re-emphasises the importance of education for our citizens and its value in eradicating poverty. However, the government’s commitment to facilitating and developing a sound educational system remains questionable.
The spending total for 2023-2024 was not utilised fully and there are once again perceptions and unconfirmed information as to why this is the case. Gauteng, Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape each built one school and three were built in KwaZulu-Natal.
In most provinces, infrastructure and resources to support children with special needs are yet to be developed. The Western Cape comparatively built a total of 39 schools within the same time frame. Underutilisation of allocated budgets needs to be questioned and understood.
If objectives and long-term goals are clearly defined, why would the departments opt not to spend the full allocation? Do we question those who facilitate the construction process or decision-makers who determine which school requires what resource?
Whilst we spend time trying to comprehend this debacle, children with special needs go without adequate support and resources, and there are thousands of children that have lost out on attending school in 2024. The lack of schools being built indicates that there is no intention to give pupils in rural and impoverished areas tools to educate themselves and mobilise themselves out of poverty.
The uncanny situation is that in these sectors, budgets are not fully utilised, yet the government has announced a lack of funds for teacher salaries resulting in fewer teachers being employed which will impact the quality of education learners receive.
KwaZulu-Natal has the highest number of schools and teachers employed nationally of which 90% of them are employed in the public sector. Gauteng ranks second in the rating of the number of schools and teachers. Teachers employed within public schools must deal with large classes, dysfunctional infrastructure and a general lack of resources in addition to low-paying salaries.
It is no surprise that many educators seek to find employment in private and semi-private schools that can offer them better working conditions and better salaries, even though there are only 2 282 schools that have been categorised as private by Statista 2024.
More importantly, the current scenario of a stagnant and deteriorating public schooling system that cannot offer learners a quality education encourages a dominant perception that only semi-private and private schools in South Africa are equipped to deliver quality education.
This fuels a growing demand for semiprivate and private schools and entrepreneurs have a clientele that they can easily attract. The wide economic gaps will continue to grow as the upper classes will have access to better educational opportunities than those who are impoverished. In the long term, these children will be far more equipped and skilled to access tertiary educational facilities and pursue further qualifications.
Furthermore, across the country, public schools have varied standards of education because of a lack of a quality assurance evaluation system. There is an urgent need for an external audit to take place to assess and evaluate expenditure, identify which localities are in dire need of schools, what resources are unavailable and available, and how we are meeting the needs of children who are disabled and have special needs.
Various media reports document that less than 50% of public schools are dysfunctional, but in what capacity we are yet to determine. The lack of proper infrastructure and hygienic sanitary facilities all impact the learning experience of a learner.
Infrastructure that does not adequately meet national standards of hygiene, safety and functionality deters children from attending school and diminishes the value they hold for their schooling experience. If education is a means to a better future for South Africans, shouldn’t our schools be equipped to encourage children to attend and want to learn?
The Department of Education needs to urgently address the funding challenges, and the mismanagement of funds and reassess allocations appropriately. School development and the availability of resources are pivotal to quality education in South Africa. In addition, our next generation should be equipped to be employed nationally and globally.
Dr. Sheetal Bhoola is a lecturer and researcher at the University of Zululand, and the director at StellarMaths (Sunningdale).
Daily News