Education problems deepen inequality: NGOs

        Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshekga

(South Africa) Problems in the education sector deepen racial and social inequalities, a number of non-government bodies (NGOs) said on Monday.

In an open letter to basic education authorities, they called for an urgent meeting to address what they regarded as problems.

These included what was described as a lack of norms and standards for school infrastructure, a failure to curb sexual violence and corporal punishment in schools and a failure to provided many pupils with textbooks.

The letter was compiled by the Legal Resources Centre, Section 27, the Centre for Child Law and Equal Education.

It was addressed to Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga and basic education director general Bobby Soobrayan.

Unequal education system

Other problems identified were that the department had not delivered on its promises to provide pupils with transport and school libraries.

The NGOs acknowledged that Motshekga had inherited many of these problems with her tenure and that post-apartheid South Africa had inherited an unequal education system.

"Yet, 18 years since the right to education was constitutionally entrenched, many of the structural inequities remain, some of which are outlined above," the NGOs said.

Quality education was only available to those who could afford it and as such "this state of affairs has profound and continuously deepening negative ramifications for the majority of learners who are black and poor".




Deputy chief executive Alana Bailey called on Motshekga to resign because AfriForum believed the department was "robbing youth of their future" as thousands of pupils had not received textbooks.

"Six months into the school year, some learners in Limpopo still have not received textbooks, while thousands of books are apparently being destroyed or remain in a warehouse."