VIDEO: Crumbling school infrastructure and lack of resources are fuelling South Africa’s dropout crisis

Zero Dropout Campaign Programme Director Merle Mansfield speaks to eNCA anchor Jane Dutton about recent news reports highlighting persistent school infrastructure and transportation problems in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.

Photos showing pupils forced to cross a river to get to school in parts of KwaZulu-Natal have sparked outrage on social media, prompting the provincial education department to intervene.

“Our NGO implementing partners operating in East London and Pietermaritzburg respectively have found during their outreach programmes that under-resourced schools in some of the most disadvantaged communities in the country are struggling to create a safe environment for quality teaching and learning to take place,” says Mansfield.

The Zero Dropout Campaign aims to shed light on systemic problems that have contributed to around 40% of learners exiting the public school system before completing matric.