Since 1997, the department of basic education has had a schools-rationalisation policy in place. Its aim is to close unviable schools across the country. These schools are deemed unviable because they have too few learners, a lack of resources, are too far for learners to travel to, are very old or have unsafe infrastructure. Some of these unviable schools were built by communities in rural areas during apartheid. These communities wanted their children to have good learning opportunities at a time when the apartheid government spared few resources for non-white education.
White elephant schools reveal lack of progress
