BDFM Online
Thursday, November 23, 2006
MORE than 5-million pupils and 14000 schools would be exempt from school fees from January, the education department said yesterday.
All nine provincial departments had submitted their lists of the number of learners and schools which would benefit from the declaration by Education Minister Naledi Pandor that 40% of learners would be in no-fee schools next year, the department said.
Spokesman Lunga Ngqengelele said more than 5-million pupils would benefit in 13856 schools countrywide.
The number of learners benefiting in each province varied according to the wealth of the people living in that province, said Ngqengelele.
"In Eastern Cape, one of the country's poorest provinces, more than 1-million pupils will be exempt, with 3825 schools exempted," he said.
Eastern Cape is followed by KwaZulu-Natal with more than 1,1-million pupils who will benefit.
Limpopo will have more than 1,015- million pupils exempted and Mpumalanga, 404432.
In Gauteng 383674 learners will benefit, in Free State 298184, in North West 267042 and in Western Cape 132560 learners will benefit. In Northern Cape, 102244 learners will not have to pay school fees from next year.
"Government will subsidise pupils depending on which quintile the school appears in," he said. "Schools in quantile five being the poorest of the poor and increasing in wealth until quintile one."
Ngqengelele echoed earlier calls by Pandor for parents to assist schools in raising funds as the no-fee policy might reduce revenue generated through school fees.
"We urge parents to assist in any form they can, whether it is with the general maintenance of the schools or raising funds," he said.
Pandor had earlier cautioned parents that an increase in school fees might make it necessary for a school to grant fee exemptions to more parents.
Seventeen schools in KwaZulu-Natal sought legal intervention this month to block the implementation of the no-fee schools policy.
Fee exemption arose from the signing in of the Education Laws Amendment Bill last year, which gave the minister the power to determine if a school could charge school fees. The names of the schools identified per province, their location and allocation is expected to be published in the Government Gazette by December 1.
Meanwhile, school governing body associations have welcomed Pandor's move to ensure "advantaged" public schools that enrol non-fee-paying pupils were also subsidised for doing so.
Pandor has admitted that the number of fee exemptions granted to parents who enrolled their children at advantaged public schools was burdening these schools' finances.
The education department hoped to have a new funding framework which would give advantaged schools subsidies for enrolling children from poor families ready by the beginning of next year, Ngqengelele said recently.
This move is to address the shortfall that the new exemption regulations will create as it further reduces income received from fees. Sapa