Of the 886 767 learners across the country that have been identified as qualifying for scholar transport, only 673117 are able to be transported for the current 2024/2025 financial year.
The Department of Basic Education (DBE) has attributed the shortfall of 213650 learners that cannot be transported to budget constraints.
This emerged as the select committee on education, sciences and creative industries was briefed by the DBE and the Transport Department over scholar transport challenges and budget cuts on Tuesday.
While learners with special needs are expected to be prioritised, of the 48076 children identified to require transport, the department can only transport 44026 at 222 schools.
By province, Mpumalanga cannot transport 3486 special needs learners at seven schools, followed by Eastern Cape with 536 at two schools and Northern Cape with 28 learners at one school.
In the first quarter of this year, 685710 learners were transported compared to 665309 learners transported in the 2023/2024 financial year. This means there has been a slight increase of 20401 more learners.
About 36616 learners from special needs schools were transported in the first quarter of this year compared to 37975 in the 2023/2024 financial year.
“The programme for learners with special needs is mostly managed by Inclusive Education Units (IEU) in the provincial departments of education,” said the DBE’s director for infrastructure and learner transport, Ramasedi Mafoko.
He said they have noted significant under-reporting on the number of learners with special needs that need learner transport in most provinces.
“The departments of basic education and transport are intensifying efforts to address the data gaps that have been identified through provincial oversight visits. A full extent of the needs of the learners with disabilities is required to allow integration into the mainstream learner transport programme,” said Mafoko.
Learner transport is funded from the Equitable Share allocations to provinces.
R4.2 billion was allocated for learner transport in the first quarter of the 2024/2025 financial year compared to 4.9 billion in the 2023/2024 financial year. This was mainly because of the Gauteng and Limpopo provinces that made adjustments.
“However, when we look at other provinces that increased their allocations, the difference is very insignificant.
An example of a small difference is KwaZulu-Natal, a province that has the largest number of learners that cannot be transported. It allocated R278m in the 2024/2025 financial year compared to R266m in the 2023/2024 financial year. The Western Cape improved the budget from R598m to R553m,” said Mafoko.
Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube said the department had its successes and failures in provinces with regards to transport.
“The model of scholar transport has not been consistent and provinces face dire financial constraints. We know there are learners who really need access to transport but provinces cannot due to budget cuts. Most provinces have reported that funding is a challenge as the demand for learner transport always exceeds the budget allocated, which results in the exclusion of a number of qualifying learners. KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and North West provinces are the provinces with a significant number of learners not being transported.
“Significant funding injection from the provincial treasuries to the learner transport programme is required in order to scale up the programme in these provinces. The National Treasury has been consulted with the view to establish a conditional grant for learner transport where a road map for the establishment of the grant was outlined.
Key to the establishment of the grant is the resolution of the responsible department at the national level to manage the envisaged grant,” said Gwarube.
She said another issue was that the function was currently being managed by the provincial departments of transport and education. In recent years, the function has been migrating from education to transport, making it difficult to ensure accountability and effective executive oversight.
Cape Times