Meerhrof Skool

Financial Aids

The financial structure of the school works as follows:
There are basically three accounts:

  1. State/provincial accounts
  2. Hostel account
  3. School fund

1. State/provincial account:
The provincial authorities pay the salaries of most of the staff members.
They also provide basic learning support material.
They pay for 75% of the water and electricity bill due to the local council every month.
They pay the telephone bill.

They provide hostel bursaries for learners, whose parents have no, or low, income. The school may only withdraw money from this account for the above mentioned items, and may only use the amount specified by the authorities.

2. Hostel account:
Money comes into this account only from the bursaries paid by the provincial authorities, and hostel gees paid by the parents - who often can not afford to pay the full amount due.

The hostels can accommodate 80 learners. In the year 2000, 33 were eligible for hostel bursaries. In 2003, 65 bursaries were allocated. That is an enormous increase in the amount of parents who are not able to contribute financially to their children's education. The hostel bursaries has paid by the provincial authorities alleviate some of the financial burdens, but the staff of the school still have to have regular fund raising days to keep the hostels going.

The total financing of the hostels is being done out of this account: e.g. Food, laundry, provision of bed linen and all cutlery, crockery and kitchen utensils, cleaning materials, 25% of the water and elctricity, repairs to all appliances like washing machines, etc.,

3. School fund:
Parents are called upon to pay a certain amount every month. No learner can be denied entrance into the school if the parents do not pay school fees. Many of our learners can not pay school fees, and the School Governing Body gives them exemption from payment.

The school fund is the emergency fund, which provides in needs like repairs to the school, payment of salaries not paid by the state (currently 4 staff members), provision of clothes and basic needs to disadvantaged learners, subsidizing of learners to go on educational excursions, etc. This fund also handles all donations, because the School Governing Body, and not the Provincial Authorities, allocates donated funds to deserving learners and projects.

The provide in all these needs, the staff members of the school organize at least four major fund raising events every year.

Parents are also assisted with transport for visits to hospital clinics, and the acquisition of medical assistive devices like crutches, wheelchairs, medicine, etc.

The number of disadvantaged, severely disabled learners increases every year, while the number of parents who are able to make a contribution to the school fund decreases alarmingly. This is clearly seen in the case of hostel learners, but also as far as day students are concerned.