Education a big loser in budget
● The government’s funding of education will decline by a whopping R119bn in the next three years.
This is contained in budget documents presented to parliament by finance minister Tito Mboweni this week.
The documents show that key higher education programmes such as the National Student Financial Aid Scheme are facing serious budget cuts between now and 2024, affecting the allocation of student loans and bursaries.
Government subsidies to universities, used to support operational costs and research funding, are also set to be reduced in the next three years.
In its reaction, pressure group Equal Education said the decrease in education funding in real terms will have a devastating impact.
“This will seriously hurt the progress that has been made in education,” it said in a statement.
“In October, minister Mboweni said that this year’s budget would be R14bn less than what we expected before Covid-19 hit … this cut has been reduced to R9bn — still a big decrease!”
The organisation said there will be less money to spend on teachers, but the budget has allocated more towards outside consultants.
“The department of basic education is also seeing cuts to its salary budget while funding for consultants is one of the biggest increases in its budget.
“This means less money for internal capacity in government, while more money flows to private parties.”
Allocations to departments such as defence, justice and police will plummet by R79bn as part of the National Treasury’s measures to contain the public sector wage bill — suggesting that the government is not planning to hire more soldiers and police officers.
The Treasury is also budgeting for a reduced social development programme, whose funding is due to decline by R47bn.
This comes on the back of meagre increases to welfare grants such as child support grants and old-age grants, which Mboweni this week increased by as little as R15-R30.
Lynette Maart, the national director of social justice advocacy organisation the Black Sash, said the below-inflation increases to social grants will hurt the poor.
“The questions around the increases — we think that the R15 for child support grant and R30 for foster care and disability is pocket change.”
She said that “R15 can’t even buy bread, and the R30 for an elderly person who doesn’t have her own house — needs to pay rent — doesn’t take into account runaway food prices, dietary needs and even rent.
“If they have children, that’s a real problem. No inflation increases is a problem.”
Maart also slammed the government’s decision to extend the Covid-19 relief grant of R350 by only three months.