R900m shortfall sparks court battle as EC schools fight chronic underfunding

The Eastern Cape education department has shortchanged government schools of billions of rands since 2020 and a civil society organisation and some schools based in Makhanda have had enough. The Makhanda Circle of Unity and school governing bodies of Ntsika Secondary School, Tyantyi Primary School and Hoërskool PJ Olivier, assisted by the Legal Resources Centre, have resorted to court to ensure schools are paid out what they say they are owed. In March, they will argue in the Makhanda High Court that it should declare as unlawful the provincial department’s decisions to fund schools at a rate drastically below the national department’s mandated minimum rate.

It wants the department to pay every school in the province at proper funding levels backdated from 2023. If successful, the department will have to dig deep to properly fund all schools both retrospectively and in future. In 2023 alone, it is estimated it withheld more than R900m that the schools say it should have paid out in that financial year.

According to court papers, the national basic education department mandates a minimum per-learner allocation to schools in the various quintiles. But, since 2020, the provincial department has ignored the minister, instead withholding or “retaining” billions it should have paid schools. Until 2020, the department paid the full per pupil amount.

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But since then, it has paid less every year. The Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal education departments are the only two “delinquent” departments. Every other provincial education department has paid schools in line with the national department’s minimum mandated amount per pupil. According to court documents, instead of funding increasing on a year-by-year basis, schools are now getting far less than they did in 2020.

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