Holistic development of young children a priority for Gauteng MEC Matome Chiloane

Improving access to early childhood education, learning digital skills and participation in sports are key focus areas for Gauteng schools in the year ahead.

Presenting his 2024/2025 budget vote in the legislature on Wednesday, education MEC Matome Chiloane said: “We need to ensure education contributes to the reduction of inequalities in our population.”

The department's pro-poor interventions, which include access to free education, nutrition and scholar transport, particularly in townships, informal settlements and hostels, help lessen the effect of poverty on children’s ability to learn and will remain a priority.

“We need to ensure there are programmes to compensate for the ravages of poverty and poor family literacy,” he said.

The department will continue the expansion of grade R to all state schools and intends to assist the early childhood development (ECD) sector by enhancing and increasing teacher training programmes, providing subsidies and establishing more ECD centres.

So far ECD centres have been set up to serve the hostel communities in Denver, Mzimhlophe, Sebokeng, Boipatong and KwaThema, with the MEC saying this intervention will eventually be expanded to all 15 hostels in the province.

The department is also building ECD of the Future centres, the first of which will be in Soshanguve, Tshwane. These have classrooms, indoor splash pools, ICT centres, a water recycling area and mini sports areas.

Funding for sports initiatives at ordinary and special schools focuses on no-fee schools and depressed communities as a “targeted attempt to engage youth in regular participation, engender school and community support and lessen the effects of the social ills prevalent in society”.

Investment in new schools is a priority as the department has seen the demand for classroom space increasing rapidly.

“The average learner growth in the province, over the past five years, has been about 2%, which is on average more than 50,000 new learners per year. There is no other province experiencing this level of demand for learning spaces,” the MEC said.

“The department’s infrastructure plan will deal with the provisioning of new infrastructure as well as the maintenance, rehabilitation and upgrading of existing infrastructure.”

The government would also take into account emerging needs regarding use of infrastructure.

He said R1.6bn is targeted at building 17 new schools in high-pressure communities through the infrastructure development department which, supported by the Gauteng Infrastructure Financing Agency, has received grant funding for the construction of 18 schools from National Treasury.

The education department was awarded R1.5bn from the Treasury over three years, which would be spent on new schools and replacement schools for dilapidated mobile and asbestos schools.

A further four schools will be built through the Development Bank of Southern Africa.

Programme highlights: in numbers

• The department’s budget is R65.8bn, an increase of 3.8% from the previous year. Salaries take up 73.9%.
• A warm meal is provided to 1.7-million pupils in 1,659 schools.
• 222,937 pupils are transported to more than 700 schools.
• 800 township schools participate in the Wednesday sports programme that includes football and netball. Volleyball is to be introduced in the 2024/2025 financial year.
• 604 schools benefit from the department's e-learning programme, with more than 21,309 teacher devices and 160,583 pupil devices distributed.
• An average of 50,000 new pupils per year have joined the Gauteng education system over the past five years, creating pressure for spaces in classrooms. New schools are being budgeted for with the help of Treasury and the department of infrastructure development.
• 4,106 bursaries have been awarded by the Gauteng City Region Academy for post-school learning programmes.

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