A desk for every student: Education department dismally failing on table promise

Schools across South Africa are still woefully under-resourced, the Department of Basic Education (DBE) has revealed.

The DBE identified a huge need for classroom tables and chairs for the current financial year, but delivery is lagging behind.

Owing to procurement challenges, school furniture has yet to be delivered to struggling schools in two provinces in the first three quarters.

School furniture shortages

The DBE were responding to a recent written parliamentary question by EFF’s Lorato Tito-Duba on the progress in supplying adequate furniture.

In its reply, it said it had identified the need for 2.3 million tables and chairs across the country, an average of 215 tables and chairs per school. It set a goal of delivering 1.8 million during the 2024/25 financial year.

It confirmed that 10,669 schools were experiencing shortages and that 5,626 schools were being targeted during this financial year.

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1 000 schools in Gauteng lacking

However, in the first three quarters of the financial year, the DBE supplied only 742 000 units of furniture to 4 490 of the targeted schools.

“Provisioning of school furniture is a continuous process, linked to admissions and damaged furniture being reported throughout the academic year,”

Gauteng had a shortage of 400 000 pieces of furniture at 1 100 schools but has received only 251 935 units so far. Meanwhile, the Western Cape cleared its backlog and has achieved its goal, receiving 251 000 units.

72% shortage unmet

KwaZulu-Natal is the province with the highest number of schools facing a furniture shortage, with 4 243.

The Free State and Mpumalanga have a combined shortage of 490 000 units at 1 600 schools, but neither have delivered anything.

“Deliveries did not take place in Free State and Mpumalanga due to unavailability of school furniture contracts in these provinces,” stated the DBE, clarifying that contracts had been secured for the upcoming quarter.

Overall, the provincial departments addressed a combined 31.9% of their 2.3 million unit shortage, which drops to 27.9% when the Western Cape removes its 100% supply of its 655 identified schools.

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