Teacher unions reacted positively to finance minister, Pravin Gordhan ‘s
budget speech where he allocated R165-billion to education. The
breakdown of the budget indicates that Basic Education will get the biggest
piece of the pie with R127-billion; with higher education and training
receiving R23,3-billion.
”We welcome the fact that education continues to be our government’s number
one priority,” said the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) in
a statement. The union praised Gordhan for ”including
occupation-specific dispensation (OSD) in his budget”. Gordhan has allocated
an additional R9-billion over the next three years for
teachers salary upgrades. In the past three years civil servants, including
teachers, embarked on prolonged strike action, bringing the sector to a
complete halt.
Sadtu also praised the minister for injecting R12-billion into Further
Education and Training (FET) colleges over the next three years. The
colleges will move from the provinces to the national department of higher
education. ”This will ensure uniformity in spending priorities across all
nine provinces which will lead to better and improved running of these
institutions,” the Sadtu statement said. The union
also welcomed the R1,3-billion allocated towards improving salaries of FET
college lecturers, ”although it is not clear how much this will translate to
an individual educator”.
While welcoming R2,7-billion for the roll-out of workbooks in all eleven
official languages to help boost numeracy levels in grades three, six and
nine, Sadtu advised that this should be implemented as a matter of urgency.
It expressed disappointment that the budget report was mum on the re-opening
of teachers’ colleges.
Ezrah Ramasehla, president of the National Professional Teachers’
Organisation of South Africa (Naptosa), also welcomed Gordhan’s
announcement, saying ”in spite of financial constraints, education remains
the largest item in the budget”. Ramasehla also welcomed the R2,7-billion
earmarked for workbooks to improve literacy and numeracy as well as help
implement the national testing programme at grades three, six and nine.
But he warned that the ”start up costs for the new department of higher
education and training are likely to be high and it is not clear whether
this has been factored into the budget”. Ramasehla also commended
Gordhan’s R12-billion allocation to FET colleges because they are well
”situated to begin to provide relevant and appropriate skills development
programmes”. However, ”Naptosa remains unconvinced that the so-called
”vocational” programmes currently on offer will fulfill this particular
need”, said Ramasehla.
Budget Figures
• R12-billion for FET colleges
• R9-billion for OSD
• R1,3-billion to FET college educators
• R2,7-billion for the roll-out of workbooks
• R17,5-billion for higher education institutions