Schools are essential to the Covid-19 response.
Along with these reductions, the bulk of the non-personnel basic education budget has been reprioritised to fund Covid-related measures within schools. In other words, the sector did not receive additional money to deal with the pandemic, including the need for adequate water access and clean, dignified toilets in schools, which are now more urgent than ever.reported
While government has prioritised investments in policing the pandemic, public schools are now expected to cover their Covid-19 expenditure by cutting funding for ‘non-essential’ items.to use up to 45% of their operational budget allocations for Covid-19 related cleaning expenses. This means schools are being forced to choose between Covid-19 essentials, such as sanitiser, cleaning, sufficient water and extra desks to ensure physical distancing, or paying the electricity bill.
Real per learner expenditure on Basic Education from 2008/09 to 2018/19 . Source: Spaull et. al. , The Race between Teacher Wages and the Budget: The case of South Africa 2008-2018.In 2020, the Northern Cape, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natalmeet the minimum funding threshold of R1,466 per learner for no-fee schools.
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