Future of children needs a rethink

If you subscribe to the belief that the children are our future, then you would have to be asked: Can you ever, as a country, have too many teachers?

That’s something which needs to be talked about now, amid educational budgets being slashed countrywide.

As the state tries to balances its books, there have already been teachers retrenched across the country – or vacant posts in schools which have not been filled.

And, according to Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube, it is likely that as many as seven out of nine provinces are going to be forced to cut back on education because there won’t be enough money to do what they previously did.

She points, correctly, to the fact the civil servants have been used to the good life – raking in increases which are at, or above, the inflation rate, while in many cases not bothering to deliver value for that money to their customers, ordinary South Africans.

The public wage bill is unaffordable, accounting for nearly 35% of government spending. This leaves little room for investment in key sectors like education, she said.

On the other hand, she also pointed out the elephant in the state expenditure room. And that is our enormous, unprofitable, bloated and inefficient stateowned enterprises (SOEs).

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Between 2013 and 2023, the government spent R331 billion bailing out SOEs.

Gwarube is correct when she calls this figure “staggering” and when she talks about the “opportunity cost” of this amount: “R331 billion could have been directed to critical sectors such as education, health care, and economic infrastructure development.”

If we want to give our children a chance at a decent future, then the government has to seriously rethink its priorities when it comes to spending.

Propping up white elephants should never be at the expense in investing in our future leaders.