Successful physical science education relies on the availability of pertinent resources, including physical, technological, and human components. The demand for high-quality physical science education presents considerable obstacles for schools in underprivileged communities, primarily shaped by the socio-economic conditions typical of these areas. A systematic literature review was conducted to analyse empirical literature sourced from peer-reviewed articles, conference proceedings, book chapters, and published dissertations from 2014 to 2024, focusing exclusively on studies carried out in South African schools and written in English. Electronic searches encompassed prominent educational databases, including Google Scholar, Scopus, and ResearchGate. The results showed that even after thirty years of democratic leadership aimed at improving education for learners in underprivileged schools, these institutions still face difficulties concerning the quality of physical science education, mainly affected by the availability and use of resources. The collected data was organised into themes that surfaced from the findings across various literature and analysed in a descriptive manner. This study aims to encourage education stakeholders to provide physical science teaching and learning resources to underprivileged schools, thereby ensuring quality outcomes in this subject. Further research is essential to identify the changes in resource distribution and their impact on the quality of science education in rural regions.

Keywords: Physical science, teaching and learning resources, learners’ competence, underprivileged schools.