By Staff Reporter
Solutions to the funding crisis in the KwaZulu-Natal education department need to be found urgently as it is affecting schooling in the province, according to the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education.
The committee spent a week in the province conducting oversight visits to schools in the Ugu and Ilembe education districts.
Committee acting chairperson Sedukanelo Tshepo Louw said on Friday that private partnerships should be considered as well as involving parents who were able to assist in stabilising he quality of education that children deserved.
“In order to deal with all issues confronting our schools and the department, it means we would have to be disciplined with our finances. It is for us to deal with consequence management. It is for us to equitably allocate resources for the needy schools,” said Louw.
The committee visited several schools as part of its oversight mandate over the Department of Basic Education and provincial education departments.
It heard that the projected overspend for the provincial department for the 2025 year was R1.4 billion, as per January in-year monitoring against cost of employment (CoE), in the main.
The province’s Treasury told the committee that based on the provincial education’s budget submissions for 2025/26, it was estimated that there would be a shortfall of R2.7 billion on CoE.
Because CoE was protected, money would be moved from other line items to fund CoE.
The committee came across several unfinished where contractors had disappeared.
Louw called on the national and provincial departments to follow up on these contractors.
“Consequence management is important. The department should do an investigation and should be able to tell us that they have opened a case against a contractor and we [are] going to recoup our money so that the schools can continue,” he said in a statement.
“The more we do not deal with those who take the public money and do not follow the right procedures, we will forever be in a disaster because we are giving money for free; it’s Christmas. There is no consequence management.”
He said that while the committee was aware of budget cuts, strategies could be implemented to respond to the current demands facing learners.
He also called on departments to review the quintile system for schools, as demographics have changed over the years, which in turn meant the quintile system should change.
The main purpose of the visit was to assess the school readiness for the readiness for the 2025 academic year.
The committee will now draft a report with recommendations for both departments for the National Assembly to consider. The report will include recommendations for both the DBE and the provincial department.
“We will follow up on the commitments made during the visit as well as on whether our recommendations have been implemented,” said Louw.
INSIDE EDUCATION
