Many Eastern Cape schools will operate on blind faith when their doors open at the end of January due to the dramatic budget cuts made to the education sector.

Some schools, especially those in the lower quintiles, already had to dip into their reserves to cover maintenance and sanitation costs just to get by in 2020, but now those funds are depleted.  

Coupled with the strong possibility that certain schools will be without state-funded personal protective equipment (PPE), because the provincial education department has run out of money, and the forecast for the 2021 academic year is grim.  

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