Despite equity plans, poorer pupils are still being taught by teachers less qualified than those of their wealthier peers
Russell Wildeman When the education landscape was transformed from 19 racially based education departments to nine provincial departments, large inequalities were found between provinces. Redress was initially driven by redistributing funds between provincial education departments and by equalising pupil-teacher ratios across provinces. In 2000 the national norms and standards for school funding were introduced to facilitate the redistribution of non- personnel funds between schools. I believe that the equity project has not been completed and that current redress mechanisms are not adequate to complete it either. The area of greatest concern is unequal per-pupil spending on teacher salaries. This reflects the fact that poorer pupils are still subject to less qualified teachers than their more affluent peers, even though pupil-teacher ratios are approaching equity. The first form of redress introduced by the Department of Education concerned the redistribution of funds from better-off provincial education departments to poorer provincial ones. This was facilitated by the function committee system through which the national minister of education could play a direct role in provincial budgetary allocations.
As a result Eastern Cape and Northern Province increased spending by 49,4% and 36,9% between 1995/96 and 1996/97. In contrast, there were relatively small increases in Gauteng and the Western Cape, which bore the brunt of redistribution. Changes in the budget process in 1997/98 meant that transfers of funds to provinces were made directly from the National Revenue Fund to provincial revenue funds and provinces became responsible for allocating education funding. The drastic increases that poorer provinces experienced in 1995/96 and 1996/97 were checked, because from then the education system lacked a national agent to effect redistribution between provinces. In 1994 gross inequalities in pupil- teacher ratios were also identified as an important obstacle to equity and plans were made to develop national norms for the provision of teachers to schools. The new national guidelines for teacher provisioning specified a teacher-pupil ratio of 1:40 at primary schools and 1:35 for secondary schools. The most serious problem encountered was that decisions about teacher numbers and salaries were made at national level, while their implementation took place at provincial level. As a result these agreements were often unaffordable at provincial level. The national process of teacher provisioning was abandoned and it was decided that each province would have its own target pupil-teacher ratio, but a nationally negotiated post-provisioning model would guide its application to individual schools. The attempt at equitable distribution of teachers has, however, not been ruined since provincial education departments became responsible for the process. The latest statistics released by the Department of Education suggest that provinces have moved closer to each other in terms of pupil-to-teacher ratios. The remaining equity instrument in public schools is the national norms and standards for public school funding aimed at distributing the bulk of recurrent non- personnel expenditure to poorer schools. However, personnel expenditure in public schools constituted 93,6% of provincial education budgets in 1999/2000, and 92,3% in 2000/01. This leaves less than 8% of education budgets available for non-personnel spending. If we deduct capital expenditure from this amount, then provincial education departments have an average of only 6,7% to spend on recurrent non-personnel expenditure. Poorer provinces generally have even less money available. In the absence of any real growth over the medium term, pupils in poor provinces will not see considerable improvements in the quality of education in public schools. Gauteng will continue to spend 100% more than the Eastern Cape and about 150% more than Northern Province on non-personnel expenditure per pupil in 2000/01. Provinces such as the Western Cape, Northern Cape and Gauteng will continue to spend far more on teacher salaries per pupil than poorer provinces. In the current financial year, Western Cape and Gauteng will spend between 35% and 40% more than KwaZulu-Natal on personnel. Matric results are not necessarily the most valid indicators of the level of teacher quality, because there are critical socio- economic factors that impede the progress of poor pupils. Nonetheless, matric results of 1999 do suggest that the Western Cape (78,8%), Northern Cape (64,3%) and to a lesser extent Gauteng (57%), have an advantage over other provinces by virtue of their resource base of well-qualified teachers. Mpumalanga and Northern Province on the other hand had matric pass rates of 48,3% and 37,5% respectively in 1999, and yet their education departments are budgeting to spend even less on teachers. The absence of national mechanisms to effect greater equity between provinces means that these spending patterns are likely to continue for a long time. The reduction of “equity” to a provincial level now means that an entirely new approach has to be found to deal with the inequities of the past. Persistent inequality in public schools can be understood through unequal spending on teachers across provinces and the varying size of re-distributive bases of recurrent non-personnel costs within provinces. Provinces are invariably caught between the need to balance demand for larger allocations to recurrent non- personnel expenditure and at the same time trying to improve the qualifications of its teacher corps.
Stable and declining education budgets mean that growth in the redistributive base of provinces is now directly dependent on efficiency savings in public schools. The effect of efficiency savings will take time to permeate the public school system and in the absence of any other equity plans, the speed with which equity goals are attained will ultimately depend on the success of a more productive schooling system. The one variable that has a direct relation to pupil output, namely teacher quality, has not been significantly addressed in current equity plans. Large per capita differences on what provinces spend on their teachers remain. Russell Wildeman is an education researcher in the budget information service (BIS) of the Institute for Democracy in South Africa. This is an edited version of a longer paper conducted by the BIS that can be obtained from the author. Contact [email protected]