Pupils living in rural areas battle rivers, snakes and rough weather to get an education, even though the authorities are meant to provide transport.
The basic education minister claims the Limpopo textbook delay did not violate pupils’ rights.
The judiciary is quite right to be reluctant to tell government in its judgments what to do or what not to do.
Ninety Eastern Cape schools are demanding the education department reimburse them for the R81m in teacher salaries they have had to pay.
In an unusual case, activists want the government to be legally bound to extensive education reforms.
With prompting from civil society, judges are reminding the state of its material obligations to schools and pupils.
The province is running out of ways to defer its obligation to provide basic educational resources to hundreds of thousands of pupils.