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And
About a million children stand to benefit
from the Education Department's no-fee policy, which will be phased in
country-wide throughout the rest of this year. However, in KZN, which
implemented no-fees schools ahead of the rest of the country, there
are some cracks in the system. The poorest 20% of schools have been
exempted, in about 1 500 schools. However, our investigation shows
there are hundreds of schools with equally poor parents. Fee-exempted
schools receive a monetary allocation from the department, to make up
the shortfall from fees not collected, but non-exempted schools
receive no assistance, even though parents may be cross-subsidising a
large proportion of non-paying children. The Education Department
acknowledges flaws in the criteria for determining exemption, but
there are no funds this year to accommodate schools negatively
affected.
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