Cornelius Basson, Lentegeur
While I do not condone the practice of the particular school of charging parents this fee who already have to contribute so much towards their children’s schooling, I lay the blame at the door of the education department.
By using their outdated quintile formula of allocating funding to schools,they force schools and governing bodies to be innovative – sometimes too much – as in this school’s case, who had to find alternative means to sustain and increase their meagre funds.
Many years ago when I was involved with the Lentegeur Education Foundation (LEF), we researched this ridiculous funding model.
One cannot understand that in an area like Mitchell’s Plain, particularly Lentegeur where the study was done, that there is a disadvantaged school classified as quintile 4 (poorer) while next to it is a school classified as a quintile 5 school (a bit more better off) in the same poverty-stricken area.
The department continues to ignore these submissions and other input.
They will continue to shoot themselves in the foot while Rome burns. What a sorry time.
