Pupils to feel the effect of school budget cuts

A BUDGET cut of R6.3 billion will leave the KZN Department of Education unable to fill vacant teacher posts, with structural renovations halted and limited support now offered by district offices.

This is according to KZN Education MEC, Kwazi Mshengu, who said the 2021 Budget Vote did not sufficiently cater for filled and vacant personnel numbers on the system.

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Last month, then Director of the Department of Education in the King Cetshwayo District Municipality, David Chonco, told Eyethu Bay Watch that certain schools in the region were understaffed.

This was due to teachers and senior education executives dying from Covid-19 complications. In light of this, Mshengu said the budget cuts will ‘severely be felt by learners in the classroom’.

He added that the allocated budget of R53bn has been stretched to cover various costs, including administration, public ordinary school education, independent school subsidies, infrastructure development, early childhood development, and examination and education-related services.

‘It is now a reality that we will have classrooms that will be left without educators; that schools will not be sufficiently supported by district offices and that head offices will not be able to effectively support the entire system,’ he said.

According to Mshengu, the measures implemented will not fully mitigate against the effect of budget cuts. These measures included cutting unnecessary or unapproved travelling of staff members; limiting approved travelling kilometres to 1 750; capping KZN cars’ petrol cards to R3 000 a month; cutting legal costs; implementing proper management of staff leave and exit packages; and the consolidation of small and non-viable schools.

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