The ongoing budget cuts by the national government have eroded needed funding for the Department of Education in KwaZulu-Natal, leaving it with just enough to pay its staff and unable to fully meet other operational needs.
The department, along with those of the eight other provinces are looking to meet with the National Treasury in the coming days to address the issue.
The KZN department said consistent budget cuts from 2020 have left it with only enough funds to pay its employees and little else.
MEC for Finance Francois Rodgers revealed recently that over the past few years, billions have been cut from the provincial budget, affecting the different departments’ abilities to deliver on their mandates.
This financial year, the department received R67 billion including about R5bn in grant funding.
Labour unions said the department must engage with National Treasury and plead for proper funding because failure to do so will affect the quality of education and infringe on the constitutional rights of learners.
Officials from the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education detailed the extent of their challenges in a telephonic interview with “The Mercury” on Monday.
They revealed that one teacher in KwaZulu-Natal is doing work that is supposed to be done by two or three teachers. The department is struggling to pay accounts like electricity and fund other essential programmes.
Asked about how much has been cut from the provincial budget and how much they needed, head of department Nkosinathi Ngcobo said the department was in survival mode.
“We cannot even talk about that (what the ideal budget should be). We are not there, we are in survival mode, we are just trying to keep what we have,” he said.
“We have our budget and the bulk of it goes to paying our staff and there is little left for anything else. But let us be clear on this, we have teachers in classrooms and those teachers are still getting paid, it is on the other programmes like meeting our electricity bills where we are experiencing challenges,” he said.
Department spokesperson Muzi Mahlambi clarified the extent of the challenges they are facing.
“In the last few years, the department has not been able to hire new teachers in line with population growth to accommodate the growing number of pupils, but it has only been able to replace those who have retired or died.
The department is expecting to recruit close to 2 200 teachers this year.
“Our teacher-to-pupil ratio should be 1:36, but that is not the case in most township schools where you find that the ratio is 1:70, so teachers are doing the work of 2 to 3 teachers because we have not been able to create new posts.
“The department is hiring, but it is hiring teachers to replace those that have died. This is not unique to us, all the departments in the country are faced with a similar problem,” said Mahlambi.
He said last week the departments from the different provinces had met to ventilate their issues and in the coming weeks they will be meeting with the National Treasury.
National Teachers’ Union’s general secretary Doctor Ngema said failure to source more funding will have catastrophic consequences for pupils.
“Failure to appoint more teachers will lead to overcrowded classrooms and teachers being overloaded with work and to some extent teaching subjects they are not qualified to teach. This will compromise the children’s right to quality education.”
The Mercury