Thirty years after the end of apartheid, the best hope SA’s poorest children have of escaping the cycle of deprivation is to get a decent education. For that they need free school meals, well-trained teachers in properly resourced classrooms, and a curriculum that prepares them for higher education or the job market.
All this takes money. So basic education minister Siviwe Gwarube is right to draw attention to the budget crisis gripping the sector, and her clear exposition of the problem makes a refreshing change from the way her predecessor, Angie Motshekga, skirted the issue.
But Gwarube will need more than a frank assessment of the problem if she is to successfully navigate public sector wage negotiations and ensure a balance is struck between teachers’ demands for fair compensation and a salary bill that doesn't crowd out spending on just about everything else.
Provincial education departments are staring at a black hole of more than R28.7bn this fiscal year, and the national department estimates its budget shortfall could balloon to almost four times that by 2026/27. Unless the Treasury can conjure up more money for schooling in the medium-term budget policy statement next month, provinces will clearly be forced to reduce teaching posts or cut spending in other vital areas such as infrastructure and training.
The basic education budget has been declining in real terms for several years, despite growing demand for schooling. Over the past five years, the number of pupils in the system has swollen by 293,000, with Gauteng (130,400) and the Western Cape (72,000) accommodating most of them.
Deprived households
Educating more children without a commensurate increase in funding means what little there is has to be spread thinner. Provincial education department spending has fallen in real terms from R26,291 per child in 2019/20 to R23,834 in the current fiscal year, analysis by Stellenbosch University’s Research on Economic Policy unit shows. While SA could undoubtedly do more with what it has, no school system benefits from a decline in funding.
Budget cuts have a disproportionate impact on children from the most deprived households, because they come from communities with little scope to step in where the state falls short. Schools serving more affluent families can generate revenue from fees and fundraising campaigns, and hire extra teachers to supplement those on the government payroll, stock libraries and build more classrooms. Such interventions are simply out of reach for many schools in poor areas.
The minister is insisting that no teachers will be retrenched and that provinces such as the Western Cape that intend to reduce their “basket of posts” next year will just stop renewing contract positions and hold off on replacing some teachers who leave the system. This is cold comfort for children and teachers who will be confronting desperately overcrowded classrooms in January, or breadwinners on contract who had hoped for permanent positions.
Hold back
For the teachers who remain in the system, every percentage point that the government whittles off unions’ current demand for a 12% wage hike next year makes a difference. With the official unemployment rate at more than 33%, many teachers support large extended families, struggling to put food on the table. After many years of above-inflation wage increases, the salaries of government employees were frozen in real terms in 2020, and unions are understandably fighting for an inflation-beating pay rise come April 1.
As union and government officials negotiate the next wage deal, the education sector’s budget crisis stems from the higher-than-anticipated agreement struck in April 2023 — two months after the Treasury finalised that year’s budget. As the Treasury was unable to fully fund the wage increase, personnel-heavy departments such as health, education and policing had to hold back on other spending programmes to cover the shortfall.
There clearly should be greater alignment between agreements struck in the public sector bargaining chamber and the budgets tabled by the Treasury. But as the minister rightly pointed out last week, the money available for schools ultimately hinges on how the government prioritises competing demands for funding. It is time for SA’s children to be placed at the top of that list.
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