In October 2015  the national Department  of Transport (DoT) published a National Learner Transport Policy with the Department of Education (DoE) and other stakeholders. The National Policy introduced the following: 

• Both the DoT and the DoE are jointly responsible for providing learner transport. 

• The criteria to be used to determine which learners should benefit from government-subsidised learner transport, including: 

· Beneficiaries must be needy learners from Grades R to 12 

· Learner transport will be subsidised to the nearest appropriate school only and not to a school chosen by the parents 

· Priority must be given to learners with disabilities, taking into account the nature of the disability 

· Priority must be given to primary school learners who walk long distances to schools

· Existing learner transport services must be taken into account when identifying beneficiaries, as no learner transport services will be provided in areas where public transport is available, in order to avoid duplication of services and resources 

· That selection criteria must not discriminate on the basis of gender or race and must not deny access to learners from disadvantaged communities. 

Every province has a duty to develop a provincial learner transport plan that is consistent with the National Policy. Provinces use different departments to do this. For example, in Gauteng, the DoE manages the learner transport policy, while in Mpumalanga it is the Department of Public Works, Roads and Transport. The learner transport policies are also not all the same. Some provincial policies such as in Mpumalanga and the Western Cape state that a minimum of ten learners are required before scholar transport will be provided for a particular route. Other provinces use the distance that learners have to walk to school as the measure, so for example, in most provinces, learners who walk five kilometres or more per trip to school would qualify for learner transport. In KZN the measure is 3 kilometers one way to school to qualify for learner transport. While each province must develop its own policy, the National Policy is clear that priority must be given to learners with disabilities, taking into account the type of disability, and that priority must be given to primary school learners who walk long distances.

Acknowledgements to Section 27: Basic Education Rights Handbook 2022  for information provided for the above section.