On Monday afternoon, Minister of the Department of Basic Education (DBE), Siviwe Gwarube, presented the DBE Budget Vote to the National Assembly.
During this, the Minister presents the targets and milestones of the department. The Minister, as she tabled the Budget Vote, said:
We must be reminded of our shared commitment to uplift, to empower every child through the provision of quality education, especially children living in poor communities.
The Minister made it clear that the Budget can’t be changed due to being halfway through the school year with Gwarube saying it would've been irresponsible to make changes to initiatives which are currently in progress. “I will not implement policies or programmes without evidence of their value in our concerted efforts to improve quality outcomes of the system. Our learners deserve nothing less," she said.
One major issue which the Minister address is that a large percentage of Grade 4s are unable to read for meaning with the Minister saying that parents want to know what can be done about this issue. The Minister responded that they are planning so that all learners can read for meaning.
Our literacy and numeracy rates remain unacceptably low.
The department also aims to improve the Matric pass rate and Bachelor matric pass rate and that this can be done by making sure that learners "stay the course all the way to Grade 12".
DBE's 5 Key Priorities
The Minister outlines her department's 5 key priorities:
- Intensify efforts to improve access and quality of Early Childhood Development
- Improving Literacy and Numeracy skills across all phases of schooling
- Improve access and quality of inclusive education for all learners, specifically special needs learners
- Improve access and quality of training and professional development available to school management teams
- Improve the safety and quality of schooling environments
The department aims to place teachers and school management teams and their development as a priority as Gwarube explains:
Teachers are the backbone of our schooling system, given the many challenges that our teachers and principals are required to respond to daily, we need to make sure that they are supported in order to achieve what they need to achieve.
Another pressing issue which the Minister addressed is that of school overcrowding with Gwarube emphasising that they are working on reducing overcrowding in schools as well as improving access to electricity and water and adequate sanitation.
Inappropriate structures such as pit toilets are also a major crisis in South Africa which the Minister wishes to eradicate as reports of students drowning and injuries, and even death, are reported as a result of pit toilets in schools.
We want to review Norms and Standards For School Infrastructure to make sure they give clarity to provinces and drive meaningful improvement.
Key Allocations
The budget allocated to the Department is at a total of R32.3 billion, an increase of 7.4% when compared to the previous year. Many programmes within the department, including Conditional grants and Administration, saw increases in the Budget.
Budget allocations within the Department are as follows:
- Administration - R600 million
- Curriculum Policy Support and Monitoring - R4 billion
- Teacher Education, Resources and Institutional Development - R1.5 billion
- Planning Information Assessment - R15 billion
- Education Enrichment Services - R10 billion
- Conditional grants - R26 billion
- Maths, Science and Technology - R500 million
- Infrastructure Delivery - R13 billion
- Accelerated School Infrastructure Development Initiative - R1.6 billion
- HIV/Aids - R250 million
- School Nutritional Programme - R9.7 billion
- Learners with severe to profound disabilities - R300 million
- Earmarked Allocations and Transfer - R3.1 billion
- Funza Lushaka - R1.2 billion
- Umalusi - R166 milion
- Second Chance Matric Programme - R38.6 million
- Workbooks - R1.2 billion
- SACE - R16.4 million
- Early Childhood Development - R150 million
- Early Childhood Development Nutrition - R197 million
“We wish to remind this house of our plan which guides us and this plan is the Action Plan to 2024: Towards The Realisation of Schooling 2030.
It gives the expression to the constitution, to the national development plan as well as to the continental and international conventions which continue to provide a moral imperative and mandate to government to make social justice principles of access, redress, equity, efficiency, inclusivity and quality education of opportunities widely available to all it’s citizens.
When evaluating the state of education in South Africa, it is clear that efforts must be made to make learning and teaching better.
