Question NW1656 to the Minister of Basic Education
13 July 2017 - NW1656
Tarabella - Marchesi, Ms NI to ask the Minister of Basic Education
(1)Has each provincial department of education identified a list of schools considered to be priorities for scholar transport as funding becomes available; if not, why not; if so, (a) what criteria are used to determine priority schools and (b) which schools are on the priority list in each province; (2) have any of the schools on the priority list been identified as a result of the school rationalisation programme; if not, why not; if so, will a separate additional budget allocation be made available for transport needed in the case of rationalised schools?
Reply:
1. Schools and learners who are not transported due to budgetary constraints are kept on a database and prioritised when additional funding becomes available.
(a) The criteria used by provinces to determine the priority schools is based on the criteria that are used to identify learners in those schools as directed by the learner transport policy. The criteria are as follows:
- Priority is given to primary school learners who walk long distances to schools;
- Beneficiaries must be needy learners from Grade R to 12;
- Learner transport will be subsidised to the nearest appropriate school only and not to a school of parental choice (parental choice means parents prefer to enrol their children at schools other than the nearest suitable school);
- Priority must be given to learners with disabilities, taking into consideration the nature of the disability; and
- Existing learner transport services must be taken into account when identifying beneficiaries as no learner transport services will be provided in areas where public transport is available in order to avoid duplication of services and resources.
(b) Information has been requested from provinces and will be made available once received.
(2) Yes. There are schools that were identified as a result of rationalisation. A costing exercise is undertaken as part of the rationalisation programme to determine the additional funding required and requests are made for these funds, over and above the existing budget.