Education
With regard to the financial affairs of the Mary Kihn School:
(1) (a) How much is charged for (i) school fees; (ii) transport, (iii) stationery and (iv) skills needs per learner at the school and (b)(i) what is the detailed breakdown of the funds that her Department gives to the school and (ii) for what are these funds used for;
(2) whether he will investigate reports that learners who cannot pay the transport fees are put off the bus; if not, why not; if so, (a) what are the relevant details and (b) what intervention is his Department going to put in place to address the matter?
(a) (i) R3 000 per year
(ii) The following charges are made:
- R800 per child for Northern Suburbs bus route which includes Kraaifontein, Elsies River, Bellville, Bishop Lavis to Mary Kihn School in Observatory and again home every day.
- R600 for Southern Suburbs bus route, which includes Parkwood, Pelican Park, Grassy Park, Retreat, Diep River, Wittebome, to school in Observatory and home again.
- The bus fetches students that are boarders at Eros school hostel in Athlone and returns the students daily at no cost for students. The school pays all expenses for 20 students.
(iii) & (iv) Students are given a stationery list, but many students do not bring their own stationery. A request of R500 is asked for the year per child for stationery, paper, books, equipment and safety gear for the skill that they participate in, e.g. welding and motor mechanics. Each child needs safety boots and an overall.
Hospitality subject students require chef outfits, aprons and gloves and the nails, beauty and hairdressing subjects need specific aprons. Many students do not contribute, so the school also uses funds from fundraising initiatives to supplement these expenses.
(b) (i) and (ii) The annual allocation breakdown is as follows:
|
SGB Subsidy |
R2 932.00 |
|
School Feeding (NSNP) |
R21 022.80 |
|
Annual Norms & Standards (April) Annual Norms & Standards (October) Total: Breakdown:
|
R573 876.00 R573 876.00 R1 147751.00
|
|
Grade R subsidies |
R316 800.00 |
|
Presidential Youth Employment Initiative |
R242 755.46 |
|
Machinery and Equipment |
R50 000.00 |
|
Additional mobile classrooms
|
R770 000.00
|
The R50 000 was given for skills equipment and divided between 10 skills departments and changed LTSM textbooks to resources appropriate for SID and Deaf students.
(2) The member is requested to provide me with the reports to which he refers in (2) in relation to transport at the Mary Kihn School.
The WCED provides the school with a transport allocation, as seen above, however this subsidy does not cover all costs, such as petrol for example, and therefore students have to supplement the additional funds for transport.
While it entails additional costs for parents, it is also more cost effective than the price of private taxis and other transport providers. The students also come from various parts of the Peninsula. It is only the students from The Eros school hostel that are subsidized in full.
