Cape Town - The number of applications for school fee exemptions has more than doubled since 2010 as more and more parents battle to cover the costs.
Western Cape Education MEC Debbie Schäfer said that in 2010 the parents of 48 974 pupils had applied for fee exemptions, compared with 105 124 last year.
The amount paid to schools to help cover the costs of these exemptions had also increased from about R20 million in 2011 – the first year compensation was offered to schools – to more than R44m this year.
More than 700 schools will receive compensation this year.
“The reality is that there is a growing number of parents who simply cannot afford to pay school fees. This is an unfortunate consequence of our ailing economy. As a consequence, more has to be done to assist the poor and our schools serving poor communities.”
Schäfer said the national quintile system, which determines how much funding a school receives for each pupil from the government, had to be amended.
Schools have been divided into five categories, or quintiles, with the poorest in quintile one and the richest in quintile five.
In the Western Cape, schools in quintiles one to three do not charge fees.
“This system has the effect that if a school is in an area that is regarded as more affluent than other areas, it receives less funding from government, even if it is serving very poor learners.”
She said the Western Cape had allowed some schools in quintile 4 to apply to become no-fee schools but because of financial constraints couldn’t expand on this.
“While this and fee compensation has provided some assistance, we ultimately need to change the current quintile system in order for schools that genuinely serve poor learners to receive the requisite support from national government.”
* Parents qualify for exemption if the school fees are more than 10 percent of their combined annual salary. They can also apply for partial exemption if the fees represent between 2 and 10 percent of their annual salary, depending on the number of children they have at a fee-paying public school.
Cape Argus