Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube has painted a bleak picture of the state of the education sector, saying it may be heading into a national crisis as a result of severe budget cuts.
She warned that the situation was so severe that not only are provincial departments unable to create and fill new posts, but in the coming years they might not be able to keep their current teaching staff if the funding challenges persist.
The minister briefed the public on Wednesday on the budgetary pressures faced by provincial departments, saying they need between R79 billion and R118bn in the next three years to meet their objectives.
The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education is facing the most severe budget shortfall of between R26.7bn and R38bn in the next three years.
The Mercury reported recently on the impact of the budget cuts on KZN. The department revealed it is no longer able to create new posts and was only able to fill posts of teachers who had resigned or died.
In the next two to three years, the minister said, the provincial departments would find it difficult to fund their existing posts and programmes within the available budget unless measures are taken to proactively mitigate the risk.
Gwarube said for the 2025/26 financial year, four departments would battle to operate with their budget. The following year, five provinces would battle, and by the 2027/28 financial year, seven provinces would be unable to operate with their budget. The minister said the budget pressures were not a recent occurrence but have been years in the making due to aggressive budget cuts, economic stagnation, and mismanagement across government which is now affecting our front-line services.
“These budget pressures translate to fewer teachers, reduced textbooks, fewer admin support staff, which means teachers spend more time on admin work, reducing learning and teaching time.
“In essence, the very fabric of our children’s future is under threat if we continue along this trajectory,” Gwarube said.
She said in the Western Cape there have already been moves to reduce the “basket of teachers” in 2025, a move that might result in fewer teachers. This may mean larger classes, reduced individual attention and ultimately a risk to the achievement of quality education outcomes.
She said other provinces were in similar positions with many desperately trying to find ways to avoid having to top-slice their budget for key services like textbook provision, admin support or the scholar transport programme.
Gwarube said she has appealed to provinces to maintain the basket of teachers they currently have.
“We are faced with a pending national crisis, one that not only affects the teachers, pupils, principals and broader communities. It is widespread,” she said.
She said several provinces had preserved the same basket of posts for the past three academic years, despite the fact that pupil numbers were increasing.
“The number of pupils has increased by almost 300 000 over the last five years, which resulted in the learner and educator ratio increasing.
“If we continue down the path of under-funding, projections show that most departments will not be able to maintain their basket of posts.”
The minister warned that if the situation was not dealt with, it could quickly get worse.
“The budget crisis right now might be the provisioning of posts, but believe me, in no time it will encroach on goods, services, on the provision of learning material like textbooks, so we have to do everything in our power to protect the front-line services.”
Gwarube said there was a need for the whole of government to work together in the budgeting processes.
“We have to reprioritise government spending, we have to say, as a government, where can we cut things that are not absolutely critical? Which government programmes are not yielding impact? And get rid of those and fund teachers and pupils.”
Reacting to the minister’s comments, Vee Gani of the Parents Association of KwaZulu-Natal said every time the budget was cut, the quality of education was compromised.
“What the government is saying is that they cannot afford to carry schools in the long run, which means the responsibility is now going to be falling on the parents. How will that be managed in light of the high levels of unemployment and poverty in communities?”
He said schools were already battling with fewer teachers, crumbling infrastructure and many other challenges, and the cuts would make a bad situation worse.
Matakanye Matakanye of the National Association of School Governing Bodies said the briefing by the minister painted a troubling picture.
“We are calling on the minister to engage National Treasury and get more money because the situation is having a serious impact in schools, we are asking for more teachers, not less.
“If there are no teachers, what is the point of our children going to school?”
The Mercury