Matthew Lester : 'Ours is not to wonder why. Ours is but to do or die," goes the American GI slogan. And the majority of teachers, policemen and soldiers would agree. It's not about the bucks. Many would rather leave the profession than complain.

So how have things got so desperate that we get to "down chalk" and the Department of Basic Education has to spend a huge sum justifying itself in an advert?

"In fact, since 2007, the salary of the average qualified teacher (matric plus four years' experience) has increased by around 40%," says the minister of basic education, Angie Motshekga, in the advert, which contains a table of increases that are closer to 50%.

"Hmm, not so shabby," thinks the Sunday Times reader, "perhaps the brat-whackers are getting a bit greedy."

The actual national education spend in the 2007/8 fiscal year was R94-billion out of a total national budget of R494-billion. That's 19% of the pie.

By 2011, the national education budget will be R165-billion out of a total of R849-billion. That's 19.4% of the pie. The increase of 0.4% on R849-billion is an extra R3.45-billion.

But while the school teachers get 40% over four years, the education budget increases by 75.53%, while the national budget increases by 71.86%.

For the past 15 years, we have run to very conservative national budgets. Saving like mad, we have managed to slash the country's interest bill from being the biggest budget vote in 1998 to about R71-billion today. That's 43% of the education budget today.

We did that so we could invest in the youth. But we can't even keep the teachers up to speed with the national budget. And they were lagging far behind when the race started.

I am sure this can all be justified with the costs of new buildings and increased staff for more kids. But it feels like the government doesn't have much time for either teaching or journalism at the moment. So I wonder if I will still have a job tomorrow.

Increasing salaries doesn't cost the government the same as business. I wonder if they have factored into the proposed wage offer that an entry-level teacher has a marginal tax rate of 25% on a salary package of plus-R160000 and a headmaster has a 30% marginal rate on a salary package of plus-R235000?

So they are going to get a healthy chunk back on the seventh day of the month following payment.

Then there is the VAT collection on the teachers' spend. Nah, cancel that, they don't earn enough to buy much that's not zero-rated food.

Why is it that we have the extraordinary success stories that are the national Treasury and SARS, but even with a much larger cabinet in the JZ era, we cannot turn all that money into a bang for a buck when buying delivery?

• Lester is a professor at Rhodes University, Grahamstown.