/ 7 May 2005

Stationery shortages in Mpumalanga

A proposed budget cut in Mpumalanga could leave schools around the province without basic school stationery and other learning materials.

SHARON HAMMOND reports

A PROPOSED R23-million budget cut to Mpumalanga’s already under-funded education department would result in shortages of basic school stationery and other learning materials, IDASA’s budget information service warned on Thursday.

The cut must still be approved by national government but has been passed by Mpumalanga’s executive council, despite confirmation that the department is already facing a R58-million shortfall in the 1999/2000 fiscus.

IDASA spokesman, Russel Wildeman, added in a quarterly review of national education spending that provinces also still spent an average of 91% of their education budgets on wages, still well short of the 2005 target of 85% set in terms of the medium term expenditure framework.

Wildeman notes that Mpumalanga already suffered a shortage of textbooks towards the end of last year and has since called for the provision of textbooks to be co-ordinated at national level.

“The director-general of the national education department has voiced similar ideas,” the report states. The department’s R58 million shortfall is a result of it spending 2,2% more than it had budgeted for on personnel costs, though it was able to remain within its budget until September 1999 by not filling vacant posts. Mpumalanga currently has 40% more teachers than classrooms, confirming that historic shortages have not been alleviated despite national government spending R1-billion on the national school building programme over the past five years.

Continuing budgetary constraints has forced the department to establish partnerships with business, illustrated by the R50 000 donation from Global Resorts to underprivileged students in Mpumalanga, the East Rand and the southern Highveld. Local pulp and paper producer, Sappi Ltd, is also funding a resource centre in KwaDuzuka in KwaZulu-Natal, benefiting over 70 000 pupils from 70 schools. Wildeman says KwaZulu-Natal’s education budget was quite healthy as it expected to make a R95,9 million saving at the end of the 99/00 year after fraudulent payments were successfully eliminated and less money was spent on equipment, professional and special printers.

Personnel costs in the department also dropped from R608 million in April last year to R544 million in June. The only provincial department that has already achieved its target wage cuts is Gauteng, which plans to go even further and reduce personnel expenditure to 80% of its overall education budget. North-West Province’s wage bill still stands at 91% of the total provincial education budget because it has over 2 000 excess teachers who don’t teach but are on the payroll. The Free State is also plagued by excess teachers, identifying 557 individuals, while Northern Province has tried to solve its problem of “ghost” teachers by making employees collect their salaries physically on pay-day.

— African Eye News Service, February 11, 2000.