A recent Eastern Cape High Court ruling has intensified pressure on government to properly fund public schools.
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The government must urgently address chronic underfunding and delayed payments to public schools, as the disruptions undermine teaching and learning, warn teachers’ unions.
Their call follows last week’s ruling in the Eastern Cape High Court in Makhanda, which found the provincial education department’s decision to withhold nearly a third of school allocations unconstitutional and unlawful.
Court rules against funding cuts
The case was launched in support of Makhanda Circle of Unity and the Legal Resources Centre.
The court instructed the department to fund the schools properly.
Delivering judgment, Judge Thembekile Malusi said: “The decision of the first, second and third respondents, communicated to public schools in the Eastern Cape in May 2023, to withhold 33.75% of each school’s funding allocation for 2023-24, is unconstitutional, unlawful and invalid.”
Funding delays hurt schools
The National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa (Naptosa) said the underfunding and delaying of releasing funds to public schools is sabotaging teaching and learning.
Naptosa’s executive director Basil Manuel said at some point, the provincial department of education decided how much they would pay per child, and that interrupted teaching and learning.
“A school will indicate the intention of employing a teacher, but you find that the department delays responding and does so at the last-minute,” said Manuel.
“Another example, the Free State can say we can’t afford to pay the R1 600 per child per year and we will pay R500. And from that money you’ve got as a school, you are expected to pay for the services such as water, electricity, telephone and other related things. The money is not enough to cover all this.”
Teachers feel the impact in classrooms
South African Democratic Teachers Union spokesperson Nomusa Cembi said teachers were affected as they cannot teach effectively if the learning and teaching materials were inadequate.
“Underfunding and late funding affect the school’s ability to pay service providers,” she said.
The department of basic education did not respond to questions by the time of publication.
