Answer: According to the South African Schools Act 1996, the state is required to fund all public schools and the National Norms and Standards for School Funding (NNSSF) policy provides a quintile ranking mechanism to address equity in schools. Quintile 1 is the group of schools in each province catering for the poorest 20% of learners. Quintile 2 schools cater for the next poorest 20% of schools, and so on. Quintile 5 schools are those schools that cater for the least poor 20% of learners. Poor schools ranked Quintile 1, 2 and 3 are declared no-fee schools and are allocated a higher state subsidy than the affluent schools that are declared Quintile 4 and 5.