/ 8 August 1997

Schools wil cost the state a fortune

Education’s poor relations need a massive financial boost, writes Ann Eveleth

The government will have to find an extra R3-billion a year over the next decade to end educational backlogs and equalise conditions between poor and rich schools, according to an economic adviser to the national Department of Education.

Luis Crouch said the department still had to do a “rigorous costing” of the serious classroom, toilet, water, electricity, textbook and other basic shortages revealed across the country this week. But the government had already mapped out a programme to “gradually” address apartheid educational disparities.

The plan underpinning current education thinking will need “an annual 3% to 4% increase on the existing [R40-billion] education budget beyond inflation for about 10 years”.

The extent of the backlogs emerged when Minister of Education Sibusiso Bengu released the first-ever nationwide register of school needs. It reflects a shortage of more than 57 000 classrooms, at least 10 000 boreholes, 15 000 electrical connections, 17 000 telephones and 270 000 toilets.

It shows that most of the country’s 32 000 schools have no laboratories or libraries. Most pupils are forced to study with inadequate numbers of desks, chairs and textbooks – and often in ramshackle school buildings, some of which are judged unsafe for educational purposes.

According to public works estimates, classroom backlogs alone could cost the government nearly R3-billion, while the costs of building enough toilets to reach a ratio of 20 pupils to one toilet could surpass R8-billion, at an estimated R3 000 per toilet. Special facilities like libraries and laboratories would cost at least R80 000 each.

The implications for educational equity are underlined by the correlation between poorly resourced schools and provinces with low matric results.

Northern Province schools suffer from the worst backlogs: nearly half its 1,9-million pupils are at schools with no water within walking distance, nearly 80% of schools lack electricity, two-thirds lack telephones and 41% need serious repairs.

An average of more than 40 pupils share one toilet, an average 44 children are stuffed into each classroom, less than 20% of secondary schools offer specialised subjects, less than 10 % of secondary schools have libraries, and there is only one laboratory per 2 000 pupils. There is a shortage of nearly 14 000 classrooms.

The province also scored lowest in the 1996 matric results, with less than 39% of candidates passing.

This compares starkly with the Western Cape, where nearly 90% of schools have telephones, electricity, secondary libraries and specialised secondary instruction, less than 1% of schools are in poor repair, 25 pupils share each classroom and there is one laboratory for every 223 pupils.

The province topped the matric scale last year, with more than 80% of candidates passing.

However, Crouch noted that school resources explained only about one-third of the performance disparities: the socio-economic backgrounds of pupils and the way schools were managed also affected matric results.

“We have known the extent of the classroom shortage for about 10 years, but now we know where they are and we can begin to systematically address these backlogs, improve our management of resources and try to target the most disadvantaged areas,” he said.

Crouch said the details provided by the register, together with the recent census data and a new annual school study, would put the department “on a stronger footing” to convince the finance ministry to increase its share of the budget.

Wealthier parents and schools would also have to foot part of their own costs to free up government resources for the backlogs, he added.

The Director General of Education, Ihron Rensburg, said the backlogs are being tackled, with nearly half the R1,6-billion allocated under the Reconstruction and Development Programme in 1995 to the department for classroom construction and upgrading already spent.

Using existing resources would also have to be revised. “It is just not viable to have 90% of funds spent on salaries,” he said, referring to the root of financial backlogs in provinces.