Question NW1009 to the Minister of Basic Education
12 April 2018 - NW1009
Khawula, Ms MS to ask the Minister of Basic Education
What amount of funding is required to appoint teachers to fill (a) existing vacancies and (b) future vacancies that will be required to keep up with demand?
Reply:
a) Budgeting for provisioning of educators is done in terms of the normal government budgeting processes. On an annual basis, each Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Education declares a basket of posts his/her Provincial Education Department based on the available budget for. Such posts are then distributed to schools using the post provisioning model. Therefore, vacancies that exist at any point are part of the declared post establishment and are funded. There is no additional amount of funding required to fill existing vacancies.
b) Trends in the growth of learners enrolled in public schools have shown a low annual growth of less than 1% per annum and is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future. Therefore, growth in the demand for educators as a result of growth in learner enrolment which will require creation of additional posts, is unlikely to outstrip the current budget growth trends.