Government-funded programmes and services for vulnerable - Unicef

Government-funded programmes and services for vulnerable children in SA
(vi) National Minimum Norms and Standards for School Infrastructure, 2008. The Norms and Standards are to be achieved
by schools over a 10-year period, between 2011–21.
(vii) The National Policy only becomes effective as from 1 January 2011.
(viii) Policy on Learner Attendance, May 2010, DoE (comes into effect on 1 January 2011)
(ix) Social Assistance Act 13/2004: Amendment regulations relating to the application for and payment of social assistance
and the requirements or conditions in respect of eligibility for social assistance, 31 December 2010, s6(5)
(x) Section 110, Children’s Act
(xi) Signposts for safe schools (DoE and DoSS)
(xii) Measures for the Prevention and Management of Learner Pregnancy, 2007, DoE
(xiii) Measures for the Prevention and Management of Learner Pregnancy, s24 and s27
(xiv) The South African Schools Act, 1996, as amended by the Education Laws Amendment Act 24/2005 and Amended
National Norms and Standards for School Funding, 2006
(xv) Schools in South Africa are divided into five categories or ‘quintiles’, according to their poverty ranking. The ranking
procedure is as follows: first a national poverty table is prepared by Treasury which determines the poverty of geographical
areas based on data from the national census. Provinces then rank schools as being in quintiles 1 through 5 according to the
geographical location of the catchment area of the school (Hall & Giese 2009).
(xvi) The no-fee threshold is different for each quintile. It is the recommended per-learner subsidy that ought to be allocated
for each learner in schools in the different quintiles. The subsidy is higher for quintile 1 learners and the lowest for quintile
5 learners. The recommended per-learner allocation is determined by the national DoE and is published annually in the
Government Gazette.
(xvii) Amended National Norms and Standards for School Funding, 2006
(xviii) The formula that is applied to determine eligibility for total and partial exemptions is:
E = 100 (F+A)
C
E = School fees, as a proportion of the income of the parent. F = Annual school fees, for one child, that a school charges in
terms of section 39 of the Act.
A = Additional monetary contributions paid by a parent in relation to a learner’s attendance of, or participation in, any
programme of a public school.
C = combined annual gross income of parents. 100 = the number by which the answer arrived at in the brackets is multiplied
so as to convert it into a percentage.
(xix) Amended National Norms and Standards for School Funding, 2006
(xx) National Guidelines on School Uniforms, 173/2006
(xxi) Until the Norms are implemented, there is no national transport or hostel policy. At the time of writing this report, the
minister of education did not appear to have developed the transport/hostel policy. In addition, the policy goals are long-term
goals to be implemented over a 10-year period, from 2010–20.
(xxii) EPWP Social Sector Plan 2004/5–2008/9 and the NIP for ECD
(xxiii) Strategic Plan 2009–2013
(xxiv) There is no mechanism for tracking the budget allocations and spending by DoSD and DoBE on ECD 0–4 programmes
or on the EPWP ECD scaling-up initiative. This creates some difficulty in tracking government-funded programmes other than
the subsidy and training of ECD practitioners. The two core funders of ECD programmes and facilities are parents and donors
(Streak & Norushe 2008).
Some key policy and service delivery gaps
In South Africa, children’s rights, including the right to education, enjoy high level
protection in terms of various international, regional and national treaties, charters, other
legal instruments and, of course, the South African Constitution. 81
The right to basic education is even more strongly protected than other socio-economic rights
in our Constitution. It is not subject to progressive realisation, in other words, it is not subject
to the availability of government funds, as is, for example, the right to social assistance.
The constitutional guarantee that ‘everyone has the right to a basic education’ (section
29(1)) is supported by a large body of national policies and laws governing the rights and
responsibilities of the different parties, such as the education departments, schools, school
governing bodies, teachers, parents and learners in the realisation of this right.
81 See Chapter 3 for a brief discussion of the various international and regional instruments which guarantee the right to
an education.
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