Western Cape Appropriation Bill: Education

Meeting report

The Chairperson officially opened the meeting and asked the delegates from the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) to introduce themselves.

Present in the meeting was the Western Cape Minister of Education, Mr David Maynier, Western Cape Head of Education, Mr Brent Walters, Mr Salie Abrahams, Deputy Director-General (DDG): Education Planning, Mr Bertram Loriston, Chief Director: Assessment and Examinations, Mr Alan Meyer, DDG: Institution Development and Coordination, Mr Ian De Vega, Chief Director: Business Intelligence Management, Mr Juan Benjamin, Chief Director: Curriculum Management and Teacher Development, Mr Sigamoney Naicker, Chief Director: Inclusive Education & Special Programmes, and other delegates.

Minister’s remarks

Minister Maynier said the province had been allocated R30.85 billion in the 2023/24 financial year, but had to endure budget cuts due to the financial strain the Department had been experiencing. Despite this, the Provincial Department had managed to keep key programmes such as the Rapid School Build Programme and programmes for children with special needs afloat and in operation.

The Department had ensured that it topped up all existing school support programmes such as feeding schemes, where additional funding to the approximate value of R200 million over three years, had been made available by the Department to supplement the allocations schools had received from National Treasury. A departmental allocation of R220 million over three years was also made available to assist learners with profound intellectual difficulties.

The issue of financial strain was affecting all departments nationally; however, they were working hard to ensure quality service delivery by finding alternative ways to generate revenue.

National Treasury had allocated the Department an additional R2.5 billion in its budget for infrastructure.

The Minister concluded his remarks and handed over to the Head of Department.

Deliberations

Mr C Fry (DA) commended the Department’s efforts and asked for clarity about the spending around the maintenance and repairs of schools. Despite improvements such as the building of a R13.8 million value multipurpose centre for school children in one of the schools in the Western Cape province, with the improvement process of the dilapidated infrastructure in the school underway, and a 5.9% increase in the payments of capital assets, buildings and other fixed structures, the improvements were below the consumer price index (CPI). What was the directive and vision for the repairs and maintenance of schools? Had the demographics provided by Census 2021 been used in implementing the Rapid School Build Programme? What was being done to combat the lack of resources for extra mural activities in schools? How were non-profit organisations (NGOs) bridging the disparity between rich and poor schools? Was the increase in employee remuneration by 3.7% a part of the wage agreement bill, and what factors led to this increase? Was the existence of private schools helping with reducing the load off government? How would parents be encouraged to support their children?

Mr C Poole (DA) stated that the Department’s attempts at innovative ways to combat budget cuts were commendable. The issue of safety risks was not the duty of the Department alone, but also needed to be addressed by public representatives to help the Department.

Responses

Minister Maynier stated there were currently ten unplaced learners, six in grade 1 and four in the 8^th grade. This issue was in the process of being resolved, but the number was subject to change as new learners were likely to show up over the course of the year. Learners would however, be placed, and a schedule for a popup system to facilitate this had been put in place.

Admission systems for 2025 had been opened from 11 March 2024 and the provincial government had been making attempts to encourage early applications by citizens.

Minister Maynier stated that the state of schools reflected societal pathologies, and with a significant decrease in school break-ins over the last holiday, there was an improvement. It was, however, impossible to completely eliminate crime in schools due to the vastness and unevenness of the system.

On the question of the installation or removal of fences in schools, the Minister explained that the involvement and support of School Government Boards (SGB) and their processes were important as they represented the community’s involvement in ensuring the safety of schools, this was not an absolute solution to the criminal elements that existed in these communities. There were attempts to give SGBs majority ownership of schools to instil confidence in communities and assist the Department in managing the schools. There were, of course, challenges with the establishment of these SGBs.

Big strides have been made to improve the education system, and the quality of education provided to citizens. Students with educational needs in grades 1, 8, and 10 were identified, and programmes to assist them were established to support their needs. These had been supported by teacher and student communities, with consistent positive feedback reverted to the Department. Educators and their colleagues are encouraged to convene every ten days to brainstorm and share innovative ideas on how to tackle educational difficulties experienced by learners.

Mr Salie Abrahams, Deputy Director-General (DD): Education Planning, explained that the Department was encountering a series of competing issues, specifically in infrastructure with the priority being dealing with overcrowding and the establishment or replenishment of suitable facilities. The Department was required to spend at least 60% of its education infrastructure grant (EIG). In the coming financial year, emergency maintenance would be included in the budget and allocated to improve safety and functionality of school facilities. The aim was to allocate at least R940 million towards maintenance, instead of just focusing on expansion. This amount would be generated from alternative revenue sources through the National Treasury Budget for Infrastructure (BFI) which allowed the Department domestic funding to reprioritise more space for maintenance.

Regarding the School Research Officers (SRO) project, 21 schools in the Western Cape had been funded by the City of Cape Town, and another 24 schools by the Area-Based Teams (ABTs). The deployment of more ABTs was underway as schools in certain areas needed more security than others, and needed to maintain order in schools, especially where the communities were involved. As of yet, there has been nothing much the Department could do about outside intruders disrupting schools, outside of deploying SROs. These SROs were deployed for a certain period of time, as permanent deployments would be expensive, and would strain the R57 million allocation towards school security. The provincial department’s improvements were greatly affected by the criminal element that existed in the communities; however, the South African Police Services (SAPS) were of great help.

The Back-On-Track initiative was yielding positive results, especially for students’ performances, but with one major challenge being financial strain. In the future, the province would have to find ways to generate revenue and upscale the programme, which was the only programme, nationally, that aimed at learning recovery with an excess target of 20 000 learners despite financial constraints. Parent inclusion was also impossible due to financial constraints, hindering teacher-parent-learner relationships. There were plans to establish a Social Development and Safety initiative to better tackle the psychosocial issues faced by students in vulnerable areas.

The issue of extramural activities’ allocation was not within the prescribed curriculum and was therefore not given priority. There was also no guarantee of learner involvement in the proposed extramural activities, as there were low numbers in the existing sports and recreational activities.

Mr Alan Mayer, Chief Director: Dsitricts, stated that there were popups at approximately 120 sites in the current year, with an expected increase in popups at malls, libraries and schools. Adequate advertising had been done. The previous year’s budget for popups was R457 000 and had increased to R1.9 million in the current year. The WCED website contains comprehensive information and could be accessed without the costly use of data to ensure accessibility.

On homeschooling – it would be possible, with the involvement of district officials who would consistently have to conduct oversight visits to students’ homes to ensure that their homes were conducive to homeschooling. The district would then submit written recommendations and any commentary to the province to establish whether homes were conducive to proceeding with homeschooling.

Census 2021 results were consulted when considering the needs of schools, however, there were nuances with this as census numbers were not always a realistic individual representation of what was happening on the ground, but rather collective data. There was also a disconnect in the number of schools in certain areas, forcing government support to be more concentrated in some areas more than others.

Mr Leon Ely, DDG: Corporate Services, explained that schools existed as NGOs and were therefore allocated funds by the Department. The increase in the Cost of Employees (CoE) was attributed to the need to meet the inflated cost of living and was allocated for by National Treasury after considering the current CPI as an encouraging factor. Not all allocations were provided for by National Treasury, leaving the Department in a deficit amounting to approximately R3 billion.

The Chairperson supported the Department’s claim that there was not much the schools alone could do to ensure that students attended school on a regular basis, or that they were always safe in or around school property, and this could be attributed to disparities in community involvement, and excused the Department.

The ANC, as represented by Mr K Sayed (ANC), did not support the budget vote.

Mr Fry moved for the adoption of the vote and was seconded by Mr F Christians (ACDP).

The meeting was adjourned.