66% of SA school children don't pay school fees

[robt]

Almost two-thirds of pupils do not pay school fees in South Africa, Statistics SA (StatsSA) said on Thursday.

"Of these, 96.5% attended no-fee schools," according to the Stats SA General Household Survey 2011 released in Pretoria on Thursday.

The number of pupils benefiting from no-fee schools had increased sharply over the past five years, since the government introduced new policies in 2006, said Niel Roux, chief survey statistician.

Forty percent of schools in South Africa were declared no-fee schools from 2007. These ranked among the poorest fifth of schools in the country.

The percentage of pupils at no-fee schools had increased from 0.7% in 2002 to 56% in 2011, Stats SA said.

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Ne...-fees-20120503

I'm all for educating our kids but I don't think it should be free. Even if you only pay R5 a month you must pay something or people don't see any value in it.

It's also no wonder our education system is in a shambles, if people aren't paying for the service there's no respect for the system.

I'm totally against hand outs - give people their dignity and make them pay. The trick is to give them jobs - even if they only earn a few hundred Rands a month - it's better than sitting at home feeling useless.

[McT]

Quite an unbelievable statistic. Quite shocking tbh. Pay what you can afford, but paying diddly-squat is a recipe for disaster. And this country appears to be sliding into the-hand-me-out status at a rapid rate. Hand outs all over the place.

Education should be for all. But this is just too steep. Surely?!

[latro]

No-fee schools in SA? First time I've heard of it.

[peterson]

This is not good. It points to deeper problems in the country and education.

[Dragon_Void]

No-fee schools in SA? First time I've heard of it.

+1 on that, never ever heard about "No-fee" schools in South Africa before. Perhaps they don't pay, because they think they don't have to?

[robt]

+1 on that, never ever heard about "No-fee" schools in South Africa before. Perhaps they don't pay, because they think they don't have to?

I think you may just have hit the nail on the head.

ANC supporters were promised a bunch of free stuff when the ANC came into rule. And education was one of those things.

The problem is that it isn't sustainable. Just wondering when the ANC will realise this .

[cerebus]

Why exactly must I pay a fee to send my child to school? I wouldn't have to do that in the US or the UK where I've lived previously. I pay plenty of taxes. In this town I'd be paying r1400 per month per child... which is crippling.

[MickeyD]

Luckily this is my last year as a parent paying school fees!

[SpiderMonkey]

It's awfully tempting to just stop paying in light of this.

[McT]

My youngest has three years before he starts school.

The good missus and I have been saving/investing funds for their tertiary education.

Right now it's the best we can do.