Basic education minister Siviwe Gwarube has appealed to the National Treasury to use the medium-term budget policy statement (MTBPS) later in October to plug the R32bn hole in provincial education department budgets.
The financial crunch confronting provincial education departments has left them unable to increase the number of teachers on their payroll to meet the needs of the steadily rising number of pupils in the school system, increasing overcrowding and threatening learning outcomes, she told parliament on Tuesday.
The number of pupils attending state schools has increased by almost 300,000 in the past five years, while teacher numbers have remained virtually flat.
“This is not just an education problem but an SA government problem. Provinces are expected to make some very difficult decisions about where to cut,” Gwarube told the select committee on education, sciences & creative industries.
She had made the case to the Treasury for an additional in-year allocation to the basic education budget, she said. Provincial education departments face a budget shortfall of R32bn in the current fiscal year, projected to rise to R176bn by 2027/28, according to the national department’s latest estimates.
“It worries us ... we don’t want provinces to say they can’t transfer scholars to school or deliver text books,” said Gwarube.
The budget shortfall is largely due to the higher-than-expected wage deal the government struck with public servants in April 2022, which was reached after the February budget had been finalised. To honour the wage agreement and cover their salary bills, government departments were forced to cut spending on other programmes.
Personnel-heavy sectors such as education, health and the police were hit particularly hard. At the same time, the consolidated education budget has failed to keep pace with inflation over the medium-term expenditure framework, meaning it shrinks in real terms.
KwaZulu-Natal’s education department has the biggest budget shortfall for 2024/25, at R9.9bn, followed by Eastern Cape at R5.39bn and Gauteng at R4.33bn.
Gwarube assured MPs that teachers would not be retrenched. “No teacher is facing the axe and we are doing everything we can to save as many of our posts as possible,” she said.
Unlike the Western Cape, which is set to reduce the number of teachers on its payroll by more than 2,400 in 2025, most provincial education departments will hold their basket of posts steady. The Western Cape previously said it would achieve a reduction in teacher numbers by not renewing contract positions.
She reiterated her call for the government to review its spending plans, saying the education sector could not resolve its budget crisis alone. “It has to be resolved at a broader cabinet level,” she said.
Gwarube expressed concern about the number of unemployed teachers, saying there was a “clear mismatch” between the number of qualified graduates and the available posts. The gap could only be closed if provincial education departments had bigger budgets, she said.
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