Opinion - Government appears to have its priorities hopelessly lopsided when it comes to education.
On the one hand, President Jacob Zuma had announced, with almost reckless abandon, the introduction of free higher education for all poor and working class students from this year.
While any news about making higher education more accessible and affordable is to be welcomed, no one knows how Zuma’s plan is supposed to work or where the money will come from.
Yet, at the foundation level of education, primary and high schools are grappling with problems and backlogs which should have been attended to years ago.
Many children are forced to attend classes in the open; many schools are poorly resourced; security at many schools is virtually non-existent and, in some cases, children attend classes without text books.
At a local level in Durban, dozens of schools are being threatened with electricity and water cuts if they fail to pay their municipal arrears within the next four months.
Some of the arrears are absurd, running into hundreds of thousands of rand, and could be the result of the municipality’s notoriously flawed billing system in recent times.
The end result is that many principals and teachers spend more of their time on bookkeeping and fund-raising than their primary task of educating pupils and providing a better learning environment for their charges.
It is encouraging to hear that municipal officials, led by mayor Zandile Gumede, met with over 400 principals recently and agreed to suspend disconnections and extend the payment deadline.
But the amounts being sought are in many instances beyond the reach of schools.
Another anomaly is the manner in which many schools in areas like Chatsworth and Phoenix have been financially ranked.
Some have been incorrectly ranked as quintile five schools, which places them in the bracket of the least-poor.
Yet, a large majority of its pupils is drawn from poor neighbouring informal settlements.
If such a ranking system is changed and these schools fall under quintile three, they will be fee-free.
As Section 20 institutions, they will be also entitled to receive extended funding to cover textbooks and the payment of utilities.
The ranking system being used is outdated, not taking into account the realities many schools face since the demise of apartheid.
Government must step in to avoid schools being stranded in debt and without vital services.
Do the right thing - for the sake of our children.