Cape Town - Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube is expected to meet with her Finance counterpart to find ways to protect the education system from “painful budget cuts”.
It It comes as 2,400 teacher posts are expected to be cut before the 2025 academic year, as the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) received only 64% of the cost of the nationally negotiated wage agreement, leaving the province to fund the remaining 36%, resulting in a budget shortfall of R3.8 billion over the next three years.
Education MEC David Maynier said the Western Cape wasn’t the only province suffering from budget cuts, as KwaZulu-Natal currently cannot afford 11,092 of their educator posts.
Gwarube’s spokesperson, Lukhanyo Vangqa, on Thursday told the Cape Argus that while there was no date set yet for the meeting with Finance
Minister Enoch Godongwana, it has been noted as urgent.
“The meeting is to discuss ways to, firstly, protect the Education Department from budget cuts and, secondly, for more money to be allocated to this important department.”
Vangqa said Gwarube would also be convening an urgent meeting with all MECs of Education at a special Council of Education Ministers, to find ways of shielding learners from the effects of the budget cuts.
“The fiscal constraints in the country have resulted in the budget cuts that we are experiencing today.
“The constrained fiscal environment is a result of years of bad policy decisions about our economy, and to get out of this situation we need good policy choices to be made and better management of both government and the economy.”
Vangqa said the reality was that all provinces were affected by the budget cuts and the impact was being felt across the basic education sector.
“Provincial Education Departments (PEDs) get their Compensation of Employees Budget allocation directly from the National Treasury which sends it to the Provincial Treasury.
“The province therefore is the employer and in terms of this function, provinces are independent of the Department of Basic Education.
“Each PED handles its own human resource management matters together with the Provincial Treasury.
“However, when provincial departments feel strain, the entire national system feels strain.”
Maynier said the province appreciated the leadership and support from Gwarube.
“This is a fight for our teachers, and we hope that others will join us as we approach the National Treasury to address this fiscal emergency,” he said.
National Treasury is expected to respond to queries in due course.
SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) provincial secretary, Sibongile Kwazi, also welcomed the intervention and said the union looked forward to hearing the outcomes of the engagement.
Kwazi, however, said they would not be withdrawing the dispute lodged against the WCED with the education bargaining council.
“We still believe that no serious thought was given when the decision to cut education's budget was made.
“We welcome that intervention, but our fight continues because we cannot put contract teachers in the space where they are uncertain about their jobs.”
ANC spokesperson on Education, Khalid Sayed, welcomed the meeting, saying it was needed to establish a common ground.
“Every effort needs to be made so that teachers’ posts are not cut, because cuts will affect the entire education system, affect the future of our province and country, so it’s very critical,” said Sayed.