Equal Education budget 2020 analysis: Mboweni tables a shrinking basic education budget
27 February 2020
The 2020 national budget, tabled yesterday by Finance Minister Tito Mboweni, revealed for the first time in recent years, a decrease in the total basic education budget, when inflation is taken into account. This means that the entire pot of money available for national and provincial education departments, is shrinking. While we have consistently raised the alarm bells about the slow growth of the education budget over the past couple of years, we had not yet seen an actual decrease. This decrease was not projected in last year’s Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBP)
At the national level, the Department of Basic Education’s (DBE) budget has been shrinking since 2016, and this trend continues in the 2020/21 financial year, with a decrease of 1.0 percentage point, when inflation is taken into account. The consequences of this cut, are felt across various education priorities and includes cuts to school infrastructure grants, the school nutrition programme and the DBE’s Second Chance programme that supports learners to pass their matric exams.
Department of Basic Education (DBE) budget