Cost-cutting measures in KwaZulu-Natal are threatening to collapse the department of education’s school nutrition and learner transport programmes.
This is despite the department being allocated R63bn, the lion’s share of the province’s R150bn budget, by the provincial treasury.
Presenting the department’s budget speech on Tuesday, education MEC Sipho Hlomuka said that 82% (about R52bn) of that budget will go to staff salaries, leaving only 18% for the rest of the department's programmes.
That will hit various programmes hard, especially learner transport, which Hlomuka said it might collapse within the next six months after receiving yet another huge cut.
Hlomuka lamented the programme was only allocated R278.4m instead of the R549.6m it needed, leaving it with a shortfall of R271.2m.
This is in addition to the R160m shortfall it faced last year.
“This situation might lead to the collapse of the programme within the first six months of the current financial year if it is not addressed,” he said.
“Discussions with provincial treasury are ongoing to find ways to avert this situation.”
The programme has been in operation for over 10 years, providing free transport to school for learners who live at least 3km away from their nearest appropriate school.
This year, more than 77,000 learners from 402 schools rely on it.
Another programme with a budget deficit is the National School Nutrition Programme .
Hlomuka said the approved total allocation of just over R2.28bn was “insufficient” for the feeding of learners, which requires R2.37bn.
“This means the total budget allocation has a deficit of R92.1m for the feeding of learners alone before allocating for the other three core functions comprising: administration, cooking equipment and utensils, and Nutrition Education,” he said.
“As such, the province will record a quarterly over-expenditure until the department of basic education delivers on its commitment to top-up the budget with the indicated deficit.”
He said the total operating budget for the programmes was R2.4bn, which will be achieved thanks to a top-up of just over R129.2m by the department.
The allocation is not enough for the money needed for that programme hence we need to engage with the department of finance.
— Education MEC Sipho Hlomuka
This year the programme caters for 2.5-million learners in 5,405 schools. That equates to 90% of all public schools in the province or 26% of all schools under the programme in the country.
“The allocation is not enough for the money needed for that programme hence we need to engage with the department of finance,” he said.
He also addressed the issue of school safety after several violent incidents in schools over the past month.
“The department does not appoint security guards in schools, but we can guarantee that most of the schools are fenced and there is security that works hand in hand with the SGBs and schools,” he said.
“Most of the cases occurred in schools that have those.”
He said the issue of safety in schools is not only for the department but a societal matter.
“That is why we are engaging with the office of the premier as they deal with community safety and liaison to ask for the assistance of CPF.”
There were also positives, however, especially regarding teacher vacancies.
He said 90,057 posts have been approved with 86,807 having been filled as of June.
In terms of school management teams, there were 2,240 vacancies as of June which, he said, will soon be advertised.
Furthermore, the department filled more than 1,700 post level 1 educator vacancies using the provincial database of qualified unemployed teachers between January and June.
“To ensure more transparency in our recruitment processes, we have taken a decision to advertise vacant post level one educator posts. Processes are at an advanced stage in this regard and an advert will soon be released publicly to enable qualified unemployed educators to apply,” he added.
He said the budget required to fill all educator posts is R1.76bn, while the approved budget for payment of salaries for educators is about R43bn.
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