WCED assists 97% of fee paying schools as parents struggle to pay fees
14 November 2016
Many of our schools in the Western Cape are classified as Quintile 4 and 5 schools (fee paying), which are supposed to be wealthy, but the reality is that they are attended by a large number of poor learners and, in some instances, should be classified as Quintile 1-3 schools (no-fee schools). The National Quintile system and concomitant funding does not allow this, which shows the flawed nature of this system.
To mitigate the effects of the quintile system, the WCED has this year made over R47.5 million available to assist Quintile 4 and 5 schools who are struggling to collect school fees from poorer learners.
Every year the WCED and our fee paying schools receive thousands of applications for fee exemption from school fees.
There are currently 569 public ordinary fee paying schools in the Western Cape. This year the WCED has paid out fee compensation to 551 of these schools. This means that the WCED is assisting 97.01% of our fee paying schools.