Gauteng’s education department breaks promise to Constitutional Court
Gauteng’s education department failed to keep its promise to the Constitutional Court on its spending on building new schools — missing its R1.7bn target by a whopping R1.3bn. That’s the damning finding of a research report released on the eve of the new school year. It raises the spectre of many of them again failing to find places at their chosen schools or enduring overcrowding. Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi admitted this week that 58,000 pupils did not have places in Grade 1-8 schools starting on Wednesday‚ compared with 20,000 at the beginning of last year. The department predicted in a 2014 document on school infrastructure that by 2020 it would be short of 1,373 classrooms at existing schools. This means that at the norm of 40 pupils a class‚ almost 55,000 pupils will be in overcrowded classrooms in three years’ time. The research report, titled Budget and Bricks, explains why the department remains short of school places. The Centre for Child Law last year commissioned Corner...
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