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Siviwe Gwarube to engage Treasury on funds for school frontline services

Basic education minister Siviwe Gwarube. File photo.
Basic education minister Siviwe Gwarube. File photo.
Image: Freddy Mavunda/Business Day

Basic education minister Siviwe Gwarube is engaging the National Treasury and provincial officials from education and finance to mitigate the impact of a tight budget on essential resources at schools.

“We must work with all 10 Treasuries to unlock additional funds to alleviate the pressures facing the education sector, even if it is for the short-term, and to prevent further cuts in teaching posts and critical support services such as school nutrition and transport,” she told journalists on Wednesday.

“We also need to look at cross-departmental reprioritisation of budgets from departments that have underperforming programmes — ensuring funding is directed to appropriate national priorities.”

The government has agreed to a 7.5% wage increase for teachers and other public servants for 2023/2024 but did not increase provincial budgets. Provinces are scrambling to adjust by cutting billions in spending.

Gwarube said the education system is under pressure. 

“It is crucial to understand this crisis is not confined to one province or one aspect of the education sector. Every province is grappling with these painful choices. Provincial education departments will in the next two to three years find it difficult to fund posts and programmes within the available budget unless measures are taken to mitigate this risk.”

Gwarube said for example, in the 2025/2026 financial year, four provincial departments will battle to cover their budgets, in 2026/2027 five provinces will battle to cover their budgets and in 2027/2028 seven provinces will not be able to afford the budgets.

Provincial officials are working to find ways of avoiding having to cut budgets for key services such as textbooks, admin support and scholar transport programmes, she said.

“These budget pressures are not just numbers on a spreadsheet — they translate into fewer teachers, reduced textbooks and fewer admin support staff, which means teachers spend more time on admin work, reducing learning and teaching time.”

Several provinces have preserved the same “post basket” for the past three academic years despite pupil numbers increasing, while other provinces have decreased the number of positions in the past three years.

“It is important to note these have been cuts in posts but not warm bodies. Meaning no person gets retrenched but vacancies are not filled,” she said.

This has led to pupil/teacher ratios increasing in most provinces and comes as, nationally, the number of pupils in the education system has increased by 292,820 over the past five years.

According to the department, the total budget pressure for provinces is a minimum of R79bn and can move to a maximum of more than R118bn for 2021/2022 to 2027/2028.

Gwarube said after two meetings with the Council of Education Ministers, which brings together education MECs, they have an analysis of the budget challenges in each province and a clearer picture of where the most significant pressures lie to engage treasury on.

TimesLIVE


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