A KwaZulu-Natal primary school that draws its learners from poverty-stricken households is taking the government to court for refusing to grant it access to the national school feeding scheme because the area is not considered “disadvantaged”.
Clareville Primary School, situated in Clare Estate, a suburb outside Durban, was formerly classified as an “Indian school” and, therefore, not seen as underprivileged. But, says the principal, the majority of its learners come from informal settlements where unemployment is high.
Assisted by the Legal Resources Centre, the school challenges, in papers before the Durban High Court, the criteria the government uses to decide which schools will benefit from its primary schools nutrition programme.
The programme was initially jointly managed by the national departments of health and education, but in April 2004 was transferred to the Department of Education. Each province identifies geographic areas where poverty levels are highest and prioritises rural and farm schools. The Department of Education says criteria for targeting schools were not redefined when the programme was transferred and there was no scientific basis for including new schools.
Clareville Primary opened its doors to all learners in 1990 in response to an influx of African learners from informal settlements into a suburb not considered disadvantaged.
“I have been engaged in a struggle with the KwaZulu-Natal department of health for the last two years in desperation to ensure that my school is made a beneficiary of the programme,” said Sangith Bhairoparsad, principal of the school, in an affidavit lodged with the court. He said the department has refused to make Clareville a beneficiary despite the disadvantaged backgrounds of the learners.
The education department notes that the feeding scheme has limited resources. “It is not always possible, unfortunately, to find these learners when they attend schools that would not necessarily be located in communities that are themselves poor. Children who have no option but to attend schools in the poorest communities because they have no choice are easier to locate and must, unfortunately, be our priority when resources are limited,” said Molatwane Likhethe, spokesperson for the national Department of Education.
The court papers say 520 learners are enrolled in Claremont Primary, of whom only 60 are coloured or Indian. The majority are African children, including refugees, and many are from the informal settlement of Palmiet. “Had the same learners attended a school in an area previously defined as ‘African’, they would have been granted access to meals under the feeding scheme,” said Bhairoparsad.
For two years the principal applied for access to the scheme but received no communication from the provincial department of health. He was also not given a reason why his applications were denied.
The papers argue that the geographical location of the school has no relevance to poverty levels. They note that Palmiet Primary School, situated about 2km from Clareville, receives funding from the feeding scheme.
“The state has refused to place our school on its feeding programme on the apparent basis that our school has a poverty rating of eight, indicating it is relatively advantaged,” said the principal. But he said Palmiet primary has a rating of 10 — on a scale from one, (very poor), to 10, (advantaged).
The school initiated its own feeding scheme, where local business and residents donated sandwiches for the learners, who consistently came to school without having eaten. “Unfortunately we are unable to sustain this initiative because of the expenses involved. Donors indicated they could not carry the burden indefinitely,” said the principal.
The school wants the KwaZulu-Natal department of health to inform all schools that applied to be on the programme but were refused for similar reasons to re-submit their applications for reconsideration.
The education department said schools do not apply to be on the programme, but are targeted because of their location. “The KwaZulu-Natal province under the department of health may have used these forms [applications] mainly to get pertinent details and commitment from schools because the procurement model currently used is entirely school-based,” said Likhethe.
Respondents in the case are the national and provincial departments of health and education. They are still to file their responses.
Delivery dilemma:
The government’s Primary School Nutrition Programme continues to suffer from tendering delays, non-payment of suppliers and administrators and corruption despite being taken over by the Department of Education, a monitoring body said this week.
The Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM), based at Rhodes University, called on Parliament’s education standing committee to oversee planning, budgeting, implementation and delivery of the programme.
The committee “must use its powers to ensure that the department plans and reports more rigorously. Failure to do so will lead to the programme failing”, said Zama Somhlaba, PSAM researcher.
The PSAM said the Department of Education failed to implement plans to correct these flaws despite being given notice that it would inherit the programme. The department’s latest strategic plan, for 2004 to 2007, “merely notes its intention to establish an effective, efficient and sustainable community-driven nutrition programme”, “but does not specify any time-bound, costed activities aimed at achieving this. It mentions only that the drawing-up of business plans, tendering and the appointment of personnel for the programme were earmarked to take place in the first quarter of the year. This is far too late in the year to begin such activities, which should already have been finalised well in advance of the takeover.” As a result, delivery has been “problematic”.
The Department of Education spokesperson, Molatwane Likhethe, had not seen the PSAM press release at the time of going to press and could not comment — Nawaal Deane