‘SOEs stealing education funds’

Failing state-owned enterprises are bleeding the national fiscus dry, says Equal Education campaign

EQUAL Education has slammed the government for making big promises to the education sector in the State of the Nation Address, but failing to allocate adequate funds for them in the Budget speech.

The education non-profit said it was outrageous that huge amounts of money have been set aside to bail out dysfunctional state-owned enterprises, while the basic education budget increase does not even keep up with inflation.

“It is unconscionable that important education and other social priorities must take the backseat, while state-owned enterprises bleed the fiscus dry,” said Equal Education parliamentary officer and researcher Sibabalwe Gcilitshana.

“What does this say about our country’s priorities, if we can increase our debt to pay for mismanagement and corruption, instead of using that money to teach a generation of learners how to read?”

In his address, President Cyril Ramaphosa focused on education as one of the sectors flagged for attention and development, especially early childhood development (ECD). He announced that responsibility for this would be shifting from the Department of Social Development to the Department of Basic Education, and also announced that ECD would be compulsory for two years before children enter grade school.

“President Ramaphosa communicated a strong commitment to prioritising the early years of learning,” said Gcilitshana.

“But the president’s bold commitments were almost entirely missing from the budget speech.”

“The ECD grant money remains with the Department of Social Development and there is no indication when the switch will happen.

“It also remains entirely unclear how two years of compulsory ECD for all learners in the country will be funded when the ECD grant is projected to remain almost stagnant over the next three years, barely keeping up with inflation,” Gcilitshana said.

Minister of Finance Tito Mboweni did address education as a priority in his Budget speech, second only to job creation and stimulating the economy.

“Our children are our future,” he said.

“Most of the spending goes to education, and we will strengthen early childhood development and support higher education for the most deserving.”

However, Gcilitshana said that the growth of the education budget was failing to keep up with demands.

“The basic education sector makes up 14.4% of the country’s total budget,” she said.

“It continues to grow, but at an achingly slow pace.

“When inflation is taken into account, the total basic education budget – that is, provincial and national budgets – is set to grow by a mere 1.2% in 2019/20.”

According to Equal Education’s calculations, budget increases fell from more than 8% in the 2014/15 period to just 3.4% this year.

When adjusted to account for rising inflation, increases have been negative for the past four years.

Mboweni allocated R2.8bn solely to replace bathrooms in 2400 schools with pit latrines.