SOUTH Africa’s second national survey of schools has revealed major improvements in basic education services made by the post-apartheid government. But gaping inequalities remain, as thousands of schools still have no water, electricity, telephone or toilets. A third were burgled last year, while one in 30 suffered a serious crime.

The “2000 School Register of Needs” was drawn up from a study conducted from May to December 2000, which surveyed 27,148 public and independent schools, 390 for special needs and 152 technical colleges.

It found there were 414 more schools than in 1996, the year of the first national survey, and that there had been big reductions in overcrowding. The trends, said education minister Kader Asmal, are “extremely reassuring” but “there is a long way to go”.

The proportion of schools with toilets soared from 45 to 83 per cent, with telephones from 40 to 64 per cent, with electricity from 42 to 57 per cent, and with access to water from 65 to 72 per cent.

The four years saw a 2.3 per cent drop in the number of pupils, but by 2000 there were 30,793 more classrooms, resulting in a reduction in the learner:classroom ratio from 43:1 to 38:1. The proportion of schools reporting a shortage of classrooms dropped by 10 per cent.

Pupil: teacher averages of around 32:1 remained the same, because, along with the fall in pupil numbers, the number of teachers dropped from 370,600 to 366,000. Independent schools, by contrast, have a ratio of 15:1.

The 2000 survey looked at crime and security in schools for the first time, and discovered that one in three schools (9,654) had suffered incidents in 1999 - including 972 that reported serious crimes such as rape, stabbing or murder. The most common crime was burglary, with 30 per cent of schools experiencing between one and five burglaries.

The 1996 and 2000 surveys were undertaken to help with planning and monitoring of progress. Before 1996 there was no accurate picture of an education system fractured by race, wealth and region.

“The findings provide incontrovertible evidence that our strategies to eradicate the inequities of apartheid have made a positive impact,” said Professor Asmal, adding that his ministry would step up its efforts by targeting poor schools for improvement.