Acting Speaker, there is a growing concern about access to education, despite the fact that government is doing everything in its power to ensure that education is accessible.
Efforts for the democratic ideal of schools for everybody tend to degenerate into schools without education. Pupils find it difficult at times to settle down because of crime in schools. While business tries to lend a hand by offering computers to schools, such learning aids are stolen from schools, thus leaving them without recourse to learning about information technology.
It becomes even more pathetic when, more than a decade into democracy, there are still areas that tend to discriminate against pupils on grounds of language. Some schools go to the length of using all ways and means to raise funds so that they can erect additional classrooms in which they will accommodate children of a darker hue who will be taught in English, while the well-resourced existing learning sites are left for those who use Afrikaans as their language.
The Lichtenburg High School incident is not an isolated one. Bergsig in Rustenburg has gone out of its way to do the same. This practice should not be allowed to continue unchecked and has to come to an end. After all, education promotes integration and socialisation. The children born post- 1994 are not called "born frees" for nothing. They should be allowed to grow, learn and play together.
The other unfortunate situation pertains to tertiary institutions. Much as government tries to make education accessible through the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, or Nasfas, universities turn education into an inaccessible mirage by raising student tuition fees. This incessant moving of the goalposts makes it difficult for anyone ... [Time expired.]