Significant and persistent inequalities in school infrastructure remain a defining feature of South Africa’s education landscape. Using three rounds of the School Monitoring Survey (2011, 2017, and 2022), this paper documents spatial patterns in access to basic services, functional facilities, and classroom conditions. A case study of Limpopo highlights how historical settlement patterns and institutional processes shape these inequalities. The paper also analyses National Treasury expenditure data to trace long- run trends in infrastructure spending, illustrating uneven provincial investment over time.
Although primarily descriptive, the paper employs econometrics to estimate the association between school size and infrastructure quality. Complementary spatial analysis and graphical evidence deepen the understanding of how infrastructural backlogs constrain academic offerings and learner performance in small schools. Moreover, infrastructure-constrained schools face heightened transaction costs. The paper theoretically explores how these elements affect teachers, their professional aspirations, utilisation, and motivation. The findings provide an empirical foundation for infrastructure policy, rationalisation debates, and future work that employs more rigorous causal methods.
DOWNLOAD PDF
