SADTU reacts to the budget speech
26 February 2015
The South African Democratic Teachers' Union (SADTU) welcomes Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene's budget speech delivered in parliament yesterday. We welcome the fact that the budget allocation for education continues to increase. R640 billion will be allocated to basic education during the next three years.
However, we are concerned that the prioritization of education in the budget is not evident on the ground. We are still confronted with overcrowded classrooms, lack of sanitation in schools and over-burdened teachers. We welcome the announcement by the Minister that under Minister Motshekga's oversight personnel planning for schools is currently under review to ensure that learner-teacher ratios are maintained at appropriate levels.
We hope to see improvements from the infrastructure backlogs programme that has been allocated R7.4 billion for the replacement of over 500 unsafe or poorly constructed schools, as well as to address water, sanitation and electricity needs. We also welcome R29.6 billion grant over the medium term to enable all schools to meet the minimum norms and standards for school infrastructure by 2016.
We further note the following on matters of education:
The projected increase of the number of qualified teachers entering the public service from 8 227 in 2012/13 to 10 200 in 2017/18 is too low as this will mean that less that three thousand qualified teachers will enter the system over this period. This figure is too low as the attrition is as high as 14 000 per annum. The R3.1 billion to be awarded in Funza Lushaka bursaries for teacher training will not be able to address the shortage of teachers. We again reiterate our call establishment of teacher training institutions.
We welcome the centralisation of printing and distribution of 170 million workbooks at 23 562 public schools over this MTEF period. We hope this will eliminate the incidents of non-delivery of books as it happened in Limpopo in 2012. We further hope that the books will reach schools on time.
We welcome the announcement that each learner in Grades R to 9 will receive two books per subject each year in numeracy, mathematics, literacy, language and life skills. Textbooks are crucial in education.
We welcome the allocation of R4.1 billion over the MTEF period to build and support public libraries. We need libraries not only for the learners but for the upliftment of communities as well. Libraries serve as community and cultural centres.
The projected spending by the National Student Financial Aid Scheme of R11,9 billion in 2017/18 up from the R9,2 billion in 2014/15 is too low. Thousands of students could not be admitted at institutions of higher learning due to lack of funds in 2014/15. This fund needs to be increased drastically.
Statement issued by the SADTU Secretariat, February 26 2015
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