The Mpumalanga Education Department reported that it had 1 790 ordinary public schools, and an enrolment of 1 030 584 learners. To reach basic safety functionality the province required R 5.99 billion over the 2014/15 and 2015/16 financial years; and to reach optimum functionality, R 13.37 billion would be required. To enable the province to eradicate its backlogs, R19.37 billion would be required.