Give us more money for migrant East Cape pupils - Zille

Money should be re-allocated to the Western Cape to serve an increasing number of incoming school pupils from other provinces, Western Cape premier Helen Zille said on Friday (21/02/2014).

"We have estimated that the migration of learners from the Eastern Cape over the last five years has cost an additional R1.2 billion," she said in her state-of-the-province address in the provincial legislature in Cape Town.

"Yet, this money has not been diverted from the Eastern Cape education budget, even though they now service 100,000 fewer learners.

"We need to start questioning why this money is not being re-allocated to the provinces that are actually providing for these learners' education."

The portfolio continued to face pressure with the increasing enrolment numbers.

Since 2010, inward migration had resulted in over 130,000 additional new enrolments in schools, 80 percent of which were from the Eastern Cape.

Zille said the migration had major financial and planning implications because many of these pupils arrived unexpectedly at the beginning of the school year, and often a few days or weeks into the school term.

She said over 80 percent of the portfolio's budget had been spent on the poorest of pupils.

"The Western Cape government also pays the highest amount of money, when compared to other provinces, to schools who qualify for fee exemptions - an amount of over R90 million over the past three years." - Sapa