It sounds impressive that 60% of public schools are in good or excellent condition, and nearly nine out of ten schools fall in the fair to excellent categories. But a dive into provincial data shows that schools in four provinces are in much better condition than those in the others, masking the proportion of schools that don’t meet the required standards.
In Mpumalanga 40% of schools were rated as being in poor or very poor condition (coloured red in the chart). In the Northern Cape and Eastern Cape close to a quarter of schools were in the red zone. A school in “fair” condition meets about half of the required standards and partially serves its intended purpose. In North West, two-thirds of the schools only ‘partially serve’ their intended purpose.
This is according to published ratings presented to Parliament earlier this year.
The provincial education departments collect and record information on the number, location, condition and functional adequacy of education facilities on an ongoing basis. This information is sent to the Education Facilities Management System, which the Department of Basic Education used to source the information it shared.