EC schools challenge government over years of underfunding
· Citizen
Education experts have come out in support of Eastern Cape schools in a court case in which the provincial government is accused of underfunding public schools.
The case in which the Makhanda Circle of Unity, together with three Makhanda-based public schools against the Eastern Cape education department, as well as the minister of education and National Treasury, will be heard today in the Eastern Cape High Court in Makhanda.
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Three Makhanda schools take department to court for consistently funding
The schools’ legal representative, the Legal Resources Centre (LRC), said the entities were challenging years of what they termed underfunding for Eastern Cape schools.
The LRC said the case emanated from a 2020 decision by the department of education to deviate from the per-pupil school allocation target that schools receive as part of their annual budget.
“Providing pupils with access to education requires that, amongst other things, schools are equipped to carry on the day-today business of teaching and pupils have access to learning materials,” it said.
The organisation said since the end of 2020, schools in the Eastern Cape, one of the poorest provinces in the country, have been consistently funded below the per-pupil target.
“For example, during the 2021- 22 financial year, the per-pupil target was set at R1 466 per pupil per year. Schools in the Eastern Cape only received R816 per pupil for the year,” LRC said.
Province deviated from per-pupil funding targets since 2020 – LRC
“This is about 52% of what they were supposed to receive, without any additional assistance from the department. During the 2022-23 financial year, the Eastern Cape schools only received 53% of the per pupil allocation.
“These deviations were undertaken without any of the prescribed joint plans being developed and without any input from the affected public schools.”
After pressure from schools and civil society groups, the education department announced it would fund schools at the per-pupil target in the 2023-24 financial year.
However, what subsequently transpired was it allegedly unlawfully and unconstitutionally retained a portion of each school’s allocation, transferring only 64.25% of each’s full allocation to the school, LRC said.
Kathija Yassim, a professor at North-West University school for continuing professional studies, said the case was about far more than school funding, but about educational justice and the constitutional promise of equitable quality education.
Case about educational justice and constitutional promises
“We cannot continue to celebrate the resilience of schools, principals and teachers while accepting a system that requires them to compensate for structural underfunding,” Yassim said.
“When schools serving some of our most vulnerable pupils receive significantly fewer resources, the consequences are not simply financial, they affect teaching, learning, dignity and educational opportunity.”
She said the Eastern Cape case should prompt a much broader national conversation about when resilience stops being admirable and becomes evidence of structural neglect.
“We need to move beyond asking schools to do more with less and confront whether our education funding system is genuinely delivering equity.”
The South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) also expressed its support of the schools in the matter.
Sadtu support the case
Sadtu spokesperson Nomusa Cembi told The Citizen: “We are concerned about this continued underfunding and as a result, in 2025, we held a national march to the department of basic education as well as the Treasury in Pretoria, protesting about this as part of a global campaign to fund education called Go Public, Fund Education.”
Cembi said in the memorandum they presented during the march, they highlighted the fact that the Eastern Cape faced significant budget shortfalls, impacting the ability to maintain and improve educational infrastructure.
According to her, many schools are unable to provide basic supplies and teachers are often forced to buy materials out of their own pockets.
“This is not sustainable. We reiterate our cry to the department to stop short-changing our schools and really fund public education,” she said.
Provincial education spokesperson Malibongwe Mtima said he was aware of the court case, but said: “As the matter is presently before the court, it would not be appropriate to comment extensively on the merits of the case or to pre-empt the determination of the court.”