The basic education sector has been allocated an extra R22.35bn over the medium term, R20bn of which is to be channelled through the equitable share to provinces to help cover shortfalls in their compensation budgets.
But provincial education budgets will remain under pressure over the medium-term expenditure framework, as funding grows at an average rate of just 3.1% over the period, well below Treasury’s inflation expectations.
The squeeze on basic education stands is in stark contrast to the inflation-beating increase allocated to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (Nsfas), which provides support to students from poor households attending tertiary education institutions.
Consolidated government expenditure on basic education rises from a revised estimate of R302bn in 2022/2023 to R309bn in 2023/2024, and then increases to R317bn in 2024/2025 and R331bn in the outer year.
Inflation was 6.9% in 2022 and is forecast to come in at 5.3% this year, 4.9% in 2024 and 4.7% in 2025, according to the Budget Review.
The Nsfas budget grows by on average 6.1% over the medium-term expenditure framework, rising from a revised estimate of R47.5bn in 2022/2023 to R50.1bn in 2023/2024, and then to R54.2bn in 2024/2025 and R56.7bn in the outer year. The scheme will support an estimated 1.3-million university students and 1.2-million students at technical and vocational education training colleges
Treasury has allocated an extra R1.5bn over the medium term to the school nutrition grant which provides free meals to school-going children from poor communities. The programme, which gets a total of R29.3bn over the period, is expected to provide meals to an estimated 9-million learners each school day in 2023/2024.
The early childhood development grant gets an additional R1.6bn over the period, to enable more children to benefit from the subsidy, and another R198m is set aside for the provision of early childhood development resource packages. Treasury has added R283m to the education infrastructure grant to repair schools damaged in KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape during last year’s devastating floods.
A further R1.5bn is allocated to the Gauteng schools project, which focuses on improving school infrastructure. A total of R48.7bn is allocated to the education infrastructure grant and the school infrastructure grant over the medium term.
A quarter (5,836) of SA’s 23,276 public schools lack reliable water supplies, and just under a tenth (2,130) still rely on dangerous pit toilets, according to lobby group Equal Education.
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