Schools mirror the health of the society. That some schools are still poorly resourced despite clarity of the Minimum Norms and Standards for School Infrastructure policy directives is a social indictment. Pupils from poor communities are most affected because of disheartening socioeconomic disparities that make it difficult to support them sufficiently outside the school environment.

The cycle replicates itself and the "heritage of inequality" gets entrenched for generations. The announcement of matric results and concomitant reactions by politicians reminds me of Robert Louis Stevenson’s poem – Time to Rise. As he writes: "A birdie with a yellow bill Hopped upon my window sill, Cocked his shining eye and said: ‘Ain’t you 'shamed you sleepy-head!’"..