Education budget slashed, schools to suffer

BASIC Education Minister Angie Motshekga yesterday announced significant budget cuts for grants to build new schools and upgrade dilapidated facilities, saying the private sector may have to be roped in to help.

Tabling her budget vote in Parliament, Motshekga said the Education Infrastructure Grant had been cut by 1.3%to R9.9 billion, while the grant meant to deal with school infrastructure backlogs was cut by a whopping 43.5% to just R1.5bn.

“The budget cuts, exacerbated by the fact that provincial education departments have since stopped allocating funds for infrastructure delivery, will make it difficult to conform to the norms and standards for school infrastructure,” she said.

“The pressures on appropriate sanitation provisioning in our schools will require innovative funding strategies, including generous contributions from the private sector and South Africans.”

In March, a 5-year-old pupil died after falling into a pit toilet at her school in the Eastern Cape. In 2014, a 5-year-old boy also drowned after falling into a pit latrine in Limpopo.

The ACDP said it objected to the cost-cutting measures. “Like so many others, the ACDP is horrified that the budget allocation is 2.9% less than last year and that grants are around R7bn less than before.

“It seems that the desperately needed investment in higher education has been at the expense of basic education – a very dangerous trade-off,” the party said. – African News Agency (ANA)/Staff Reporter