It would appear that a major consideration, for which quintile a school will be placed in, is the area in which that school is situated. This assessment, which is based on socio- economic conditions in the surrounding community, appears to not consider that the actual learner component of the school is or may not necessarily be drawn from the surrounding community. In the Western Cape learners often travel outside of their home suburbs in order to attend better resourced schools or schools with specific sports or language programmes to the ones in their community. This leads to challenges where resources are concerned since the system of dividing schools into quintiles presupposes that the learners will come from the community where the school is located. In circumstances where learners are travelling to the school from outside of the area in which the school is situated, the criteria apparently in use would then be inapplicable.  Seen from this perspective the system actually results in the very inequity which it seeks to resolve.

As at 8 June 2023, 519 000 learners benefited from school nutrition programmes. Schools in quintiles 1 -3 are automatically provided for in school nutrition programmes however only since 2022 has the WCED been given permission by the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to include quintile 4 schools in its budgetary provisioning for school nutrition programmes. Quintile 5 schools remain excluded. If a school is designated quintile 5 due to being in an affluent city suburb but its learners are travelling from the outskirts of the City (as the Commission has learned through its monitoring) we have learners in the Western Cape who may as a consequence be experiencing hunger. While the Commission welcomes the inclusion of quintile 4 schools in the school nutrition programme, the criteria which informs the decision of which quintile a school is assigned to, may then not take into consideration the lived reality of the way in which learners access education in the Western Cape.

The engagement therefore seeks to improve the Commission's understanding of the process involved in the placing of a school in a specific quintile, what can be done by schools to dispute this decision should it prove to be unsuitable to the circumstances of a particular school, and what can be done to change an “incorrect” allocation. The engagement will also consider whether given the challenges identified, the Commission needs to meet with the DBE to discuss the policy alternatively its implementation.

Ends

For queries, kindly contact the Advocacy and Research Consultant of the WCPO, Ms. Tammy Carter, on 021 426 2277 / 068 543 8996 or email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., alternatively, Provincial Manager Ms Zena Nair: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.