Education pushed to the margins
Experts and activists say the infrastructure backlog at schools is being ignored
Education experts were dismayed by the lack of detail in finance minister Enoch Godongwana’s budget speech about resources to address “multiple challenges”.
Education “does not seem to receive the priority it deserves in terms of the challenges we face in providing quality education with quality outcomes”, says Prof Labby Ramrathan of the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN).
“The glossing-over of the budget for education does not seem to grip the attention of the finances of the country.”
Godongwana allocated R22bn to cover the shortfall in the education compensation budget and to improve services but Ramrathan says the amount “is completely insufficient to address the multiple challenges facing education ... it was just stated without any further engagement, suggesting it is a marginal issue”.
Prof Vimolan Mudaly, deputy academic leader in the school of education at UKZN, says Godongwana neglected the backlogs in education.
“I am not sure how the meagre budget allocated to education is expected to rebuild dilapidated schools, address the lack of necessary infrastructure such as water and sewerage systems in schools, and the absolute lack of teaching and learning tools and resources for the 21st century.
“I am certain that education is still not a priority and I am eager to see how the ministers of [basic] education and higher education disburse their respective allocations.”
Prof Mary Metcalfe, of the University of Johannesburg, welcomed the importance Godongwana attached to the social wage. “It’s good that basic education, as well as university transfers, the National Student Financial Aid Scheme and state contribution to the skills development fund, are still such a priority in government.”
However, the challenge is “to improve the effectiveness of this investment in education”, she says.
“There are concerns that within a constrained fiscal environment we continue to have existing backlogs in infrastructure and it’s unlikely that we are going to address them as rapidly as they must be addressed.”
Metcalfe says wage negotiations will be critical “because in education, the personnel budget takes the lion’s share. If we are not able to increase the personnel budget within this allocation, it has implications both for teachers’ salaries and class sizes.”
She welcomed the allocation for building bridges in rural areas so pupils can get to school more easily.
Lobby group Equal Education says many of the 23,276 state schools lack libraries (17,832), reliable electricity (3,343) and water (5,836), or rely on dangerous pit toilets (2,130).
“This is the daily reality of many learners from working-class and rural communities as education departments continuously fail to deliver even the most basic infrastructure and resources,” it says.
The physical state of schools “is a clear indication that the system is not functioning as it should. Given these appalling conditions, it is no surprise that many learners struggle with foundational skills such as reading.”
On Tuesday, the department of basic education told parliament during a presentation on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s state of the nation address that medium-term strategic framework outcomes for education for 2019 to 2024 include improved school-readiness; ensuring 10-year-olds in publicly funded schools can read for meaning; and ensuring pupils are better prepared for further studies and the world of work beyond grade 9.