School Community Integration Pilot Project - Department of Education

A comparative analysis of education expenditure in Eastern Cape schools – November 2004
Eastern Cape is close. It is noticeable that the relatively wealthier provinces still
generally have a higher per capita expenditure on education.
Non-personnel non-capital (NPNC) expenditure per learner
Non-personnel non-capital (NPNC) expenditure in public schools is a crucially
important area for educational performance, as the Department of Education’s 2003
Review noted. NPNC recurrent funding is used to purchase essential learner
materials and equipment for the classroom and to run school services. NPNC per
capita in public schools represents the funding available to each learner for a
‘package’ of learner materials and support. It is vital that provinces prioritise this area
for funding. National Treasury has drawn attention to the importance of nonpersonnel
non-capital (NPNC) expenditure for educational outcomes. The 2003
Inter-Governmental Fiscal Review (IGFR) notes that ‘the provinces with low nonpersonnel
non-capital expenditure per learner in public schools also have low senior
certificate pass rates’ 11 . The table below compares NPNC per capita across the
provinces in recent years.
Table 11: Non-personnel non-capital expenditure per public school learner 12
Province 1999/00 2000/01 2001/02 2002/03
Eastern Cape 92 123 175 190
Free State 325 204 206 308
Gauteng 350 270 240 463
Kwazulu-Natal 175 55 57 113
Limpopo 193 116 144 197
Mpumalanga 153 86 153 355
Northern Cape 461 574 555 554
North West 230 182 227 250
Western Cape 312 273 354 457
SOUTH AFRICA 210 151 176 259
In 2002/03 the three provinces of Gauteng, Northern Cape and Western Cape spent
an average of R468 per public school learner on NPNC. The remaining provinces
averaged a much lower R155 per learner. NPNC per capita in the Eastern Cape has
risen rapidly in recent years. The province spent R190 per learner in 2002/03
reflecting the increasing non-personnel allocations of recent years, up from a low of
R92 per learner in 1999/00 during the financial crisis of the late 1990s.
More worryingly, the figures demonstrate wide variation between provinces and over
time in this crucial area of funding. This variation is much greater than for total
expenditure per public school learner. The three non-homeland provinces are
spending an average of three times more than the other provinces per learner on
learner materials and other essential school recurrent items.
NPNC has been allocated to public schools under the framework of the national
norms and standards for schools funding (NSSF) since 1999/00. NPNC has been
11 National Treasury: Inter-Governmental Fiscal Review (IGFR) 2003, p.59.
12 IGFR 2003, p. 60.
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