IMPROVING EDUCATION FOR POOR DESPITE CONSTRAINTS

I AM extremely disappointed by (MPL Muhammad Khalid) Sayed’s habitual willingness to peddle blatant falsehoods to the people of the Western Cape. Not to mention his clear lack of understanding of basic government.

Here are the facts: this year, nearly 23 000 extra learners are wanting place in our province’s school system.

Of the first time registrations, 87% are from the Eastern Cape.

This adds to the 130 000 extra learners that joined the system in the previous five years.

This is why we are struggling with unplaced learners: our budget, allocated according to the provincial equitable share from the national government, is not increasing at the same rate as the number of learners in the Western Cape.

In addition, the majority of people coming here are not wealthy, which is changing our poverty profile.

This is not reflected in the national quintile system, which still assumes that we are wealthier than is the factual situation on the ground. Obviously this increases the class sizes and inhibits our ability to give as much attention to individuals as we would like.

If we could do that, we would have better outcomes. It is also putting additional pressure on other government services. It is not difficult to understand.

The budget has, in real terms, reduced over the last number of years.

For Sayed to say that we must adopt a norm of class sizes with a maximum of 30 learners shows how completely out of touch is with the workings of government.

Does he not think we would do that if we were able to? There is only one way to do that, employ more teachers and build more classrooms. How exactly does he propose we do that without the money?

We have the following options to employ more teachers – cut the infrastructure budget, transport budget or feeding. I would love to know which one he suggests we should use.

Unlike the ANC and their coalition partners, the Western Cape government does not carry on spending money we do not have. We are responsible and not intent on bankrupting the state. We have to work within a budget and balance multiple needs within what we are allocated.

We would love to build more schools, hire more teachers, transport more children, and provide expensive security to each and every school, but we don’t have the money to do so.

We have also already allocated growth posts to schools (another factual error by Sayed) where the demand is the greatest – this is an annual process that schools are fully aware of.

We are also in the process of opening up extra classrooms to accommodate new learners. But again, there is a limit to the number we can afford.

Despite these incredible challenges, the Western Cape Education Department continues to deliver quality education.

Performance has improved significantly in the poorest communities since the DA took over from the ANC in 2009, despite the increases in population.

Safety is a core priority for the Western Cape government. It is just a pity we cannot rely on the criminal justice system that has become, for all intents and purposes, dysfunctional under the ANC at a national level.

It is not a provincial mandate. This means that we have to spend more on these issues than we should have to as a provincial government.

It is despicable to play on the emotions of the public and our staff by trying to create the impression that we are somehow happy with overcrowded classrooms and the like. We are not.

And the fact that we continue to do as well as we do is a testimony to our dedicated educators and administrative staff, who work day and night to try and provide the best we can for our children, while the country’s governing party, the ANC, plays Russian roulette with our economy.