EDWIN NAIDU
GIVEN the country’s energy crisis, which affects all citizens, it’s not surprising that education does not feature highly on the Government’s current compelling priorities, says Equal Education, Head of Research, Elizabeth Biney.
In fact, Biney said it was clear where the priorities lay as education featured just three times in Wednesday’s Budget Speech by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana.
“In all fairness, we are all struggling with Eskom and it’s a huge problem but there’s also a secondary crisis that is overlooked. It is the crisis in our public education sector, which is struggling to get onto an upward trajectory,” she said.
Biney said the crisis is at the foundation, but throughout the system with terrible infrastructure and backlogs that will take years to get rid of. All this, she said was affecting teaching and learning.
“Funding is a huge aspect as well because even though government will have you believe that we are getting a bigger chunk of the budget on education, it has been decreasing over the years,” she said.
Speaking to Inside Education, Biney said the annual increases in education spend were not in keeping with inflation.
Over the medium term, the Department of Basic Education will continue to focus on improving school infrastructure, providing high quality support materials for learners and teachers, and providing nutritious meals for learners through the national school nutrition programme.
The department’s total expenditure is set to increase at an average annual rate of 7.2 per cent, from R23.4 billion in 2020/21 to R28.8 billion in 2023/24.
According to the Budget allocation for Basic Education, over the medium term, the department will focus on: improving school infrastructure; providing support to improve matric completion rates; providing high‐quality support materials for learners and teachers; facilitating the increase in supply of quality teachers while preparing serving teachers to teach new subjects that will prepare learners for a changing world; improving services provided through the early childhood development (ECD) function taken over from the social development sector; and providing nutritious meals for learners through the national school nutrition programme.
According to the Budget, the department’s allocations increase at an average annual rate of 5.6 per cent, from R29.7 billion in 2022/23 to R34.9 billion in 2025/26.
Transfers and subsidies account for 84.9 per cent (R85.1 billion) of the department’s allocation over the MTEF period, increasing at an average annual rate of 6.4 per cent, from R24.8 billion in 2022/23 to R29.9 billion in 2025/26.
“So when we adjust that budget allocations with inflation, what we are seeing is that the overall or the total allocation to basic education is not actually as high or as big as Treasury will have to believe in fact, it is decreasing,” said Biney.
Godongwana said R22 billion would be allocated to basic education to cover the shortfall in compensation budgets and to improve services. The Budget also provides additional funding for safety and security, education and health. In health, the funds are to hire new staff, address shortfalls in compensation budgets, and retain additional health workers appointed during the pandemic, as well as to clear the backlog in health services.
A huge chunk of the budget will go towards improving school infrastructure and physical infrastructure with emphasis on ensuring that the environment of every school is safe and appropriate for teaching and learning.
To achieve this, R48.7 billion is allocated to the education infrastructure grant and the school infrastructure backlogs grant over the MTEF period, accounting for 95.9 per cent of spending in the Planning, Information and Assessment programme.
The school infrastructure backlogs grant was given allocated R2.1 billion in 2023/24 to address infrastructure backlogs at schools that do not meet the basic norms and standards. In 2023/24, funds from the grant will be used to build a targeted 9 new schools to replace those that are built with inappropriate material such as mud, provide sanitation to 350 schools, and supply water to 1 school.
Over the period ahead, the department plans to use funds from the grant to repair school infrastructure damaged by flooding in KwaZulu‐Natal and Eastern Cape, and to reduce overcrowding in classes and schools. A grant of R42.2 billion over the MTEF period, which includes an additional R283.2 million in 2023/24 to repair schools damaged by the floods was allocated for this purpose.
To reduce the learner dropout rate, the Second Chance Matric programme provides support to matrics who do not meet the pass requirements of the national senior certificate examinations or senior certificate (amended).
Over the MTEF period, the programme aims to increase the number of learners obtaining subject passes from 50 000 to 100 000, partly driven by its expansion to include learners with barriers to learning, starting with visually and hearing‐impaired learners in 2023.
The programme is allocated R182.1 million over the medium term in the Curriculum Policy, Support and Monitoring programme.
Money will be made available to:
Increase the number of learners who complete grade 12 by providing the Second Chance Matric programme for learners who failed to meet the national senior certificate and the senior certificate (amended) requirements annually.
Improve the learning and teaching of critical foundational skills by developing, printing and
distributing 2 volumes of workbooks for grade R, grades 1 to 6 literacy/languages, grades 1 to 3 life
skills (quintile 1 to quintile 3), grades 1 to 9 numeracy/mathematics, and grades 1 to 6 English first
additional language to all learners in public schools annually.
Improve learners’ reading proficiency in the foundation phase in all underperforming rural and township schools by using the early grade reading assessment toolkit to assess learners’ reading levels by 2023/24. This includes phonic knowledge, word recognition, and fluency and comprehension skills in the early grades.
In addition, there is a programme to fast‐track the rollout and implementation of ICT in schools by providing teacher training, ICT devices, digital content, software, connectivity, IT support to schools, and online learner and teacher support materials annually.
For the tertiary sector, over the medium term, the Department of Higher Education and Training will focus on supporting the post‐school education and training system by expanding access to higher education and facilitating the transition to work and enhancing performance by upgrading infrastructure and increasing capacity. Total expenditure over the MTEF period is expected to reach R432.4 billion.
INSIDE EDUCATION
