Cost of Education In South Africa

Happy New Year to all our readers. I wish nothing but all your heart's desires being fulfilled for this year.

With the new year comes the new school year. And having spoken to other parents I realised that we all have the same common complaints. Cost of a good education is extremely high in South Africa.

It's so sad that a basic human right is not easily accessible to the average person. And what is even more sad is that the gap in the education system is so vast. There are so many different "levels" (for lack of a better explanation). You have basic schooling which only offers the bare minimum. You have what they used to refer to as model C schools, which also have the different levels (believe it or not), and then the elite Private Schools.

The strange thing for me is that all schools (except for the private schools) sit and write the same matric exam. So why can we not all get the same type of education at an affordable rate?

South Africa recently launched a new online registration system, which I felt was such a good thing because it was not as time consuming as going to the actual school, collecting the forms, going home filling them out and then returning them at a later stage. However I was quite upset that the system only gives you the schools within a 1km radius. And because the school that my son was in is 1.2km's away it would not allow me to register.

I recently came across an article about a Private School which costs the same amount as the upper class Model C schools. I could not believe it!! Someone else was just as fed up as I was but actually decided to do something about it. And you get the same level of education as a private school at the price of a Model C school.

There are alot of basic issues that this country faces namely Health, Education, Housing and Food. These are all basic human rights, human needs, and yet they are at the best of times unaffordable.

The average person cannot afford to live close to where they work as rent is too expensive. So you end up staying on the outskirts of the city because it is cheaper, and travelling 1.5 - 2 hours via public transport to get to work. Hell the average person will never afford to buy their own house or car. It's just ridiculous!

As a nation we need to stand up and say enough is enough.

There are 9282000 employed South Africans. Are you telling me that our taxes cannot be used towards making these basic human rights accessible?

I can fully understand why university students across the country decided to start the #feesmustfall campaign last year. I don’t support the manner in which it was done, but I definitely support the cause.

So I think that this year our government must really take a step back and re-evaluate all their policies that they have in place. I mean at the end of the day we all want to live a good life, send our kids to great schools, live in decent houses and afford to buy food. Are we asking for too much?

XOXO T