ActionSA’s paradoxical anticipation of the Eastern Cape’ matric results for the class of 2022 is characterised by hope and angst. On the one end we are encouraged by the historical improvement in the matric pass rate (from 56.8% for the class of 2015 to 73% for the class 2021), yet on the other end angst rears its ugly head when we think about the current state of education in the province.
Concern is heightened when even the destructive South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) is reported to have warned that the Eastern Cape Department of Education is on the brink of collapse.
The challenges that marred the beginning of the 2022 school year are symptomatic of the fundamental problems with education in the Eastern Cape. For starters, the association of school governing bodies reported the Eastern Cape education department to the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) for its failure to supply stationery and textbooks in time for the reopening of schools. By the 19th of January 2022 the department had not delivered textbooks, had not paid learner transport providers, still owed education assistants their stipends and failed to fill vacant teaching posts.
As a result, some learners began their school year without teachers, textbooks, stationery and transport. Some schools were forced to repurpose their budget for nutrition to finance photocopying of textbooks for learners as a temporary measure. It took a court order, obtained by the Legal Resources Centre on the 22nd of March 2022, acting on behalf of the Khula Development Forum in Peddie, to compel the education department to deliver all textbooks and stationery by the end of the 1st quarter of 2022.
Secondly, the shortage of teaching personnel remains a matter of deep concern. It is one of the department’s key responsibilities to gauge capacity constraints and to address these timeously and effectively because basic education is a basic right. Yet, there seems to be an under-appreciation (on the part of department officials) of the effects of understaffing on the quality of education received by learners.
The province’s total budget for the 2022/23 financial year was R87.8bn, with education receiving the lion’s share of R38bn. Despite this substantial allocation, the education department cannot sort out the urgent matter of the shortage of teachers in the province. In some cases, education assistants that were hired under the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative are forced to fill the vacuum of the missing teachers by teaching entire classes unsupervised.
Notwithstanding the fact that it is against the law for education assistants to teach classes as they are neither qualified nor registered as teachers with the South African Council of Educators. Ironically, the same education assistants marched to the Department of Education’s offices on 20 June 2022 out of frustration because they had not been paid and some schools were reportedly shut down by parents to force the department to pay the assistants.
One of ActionSA’s activists in Nelson Mandela Bay, who is a maths teacher, could not be given a permanent position as a teacher, despite working as a substitute teacher for over a year. She has since opted to leave teaching as a vocation.
The National Treasury’s 2022 budget review declared that “… slow growth of 1.9% on compensation of employees in basic education over the medium term will result in fewer teachers and increased class sizes in some provinces”. It goes without saying that the poorest provinces will be the hardest hit, with the Eastern Cape being one of them.
Poorly prioritised government spending on education seems to be one of the contributing factors to the malaise. In a position paper released by the Budget Justice Coalition in November 2021, it was exposed that education’s share of government spending is declining.
Compounded by the increase in the number of learners, the reduction in spending on education has led to an anticipated 13.1% decrease in per-learner expenditure for the 2023/24 fiscal year (compared to the 2019/20 year). This means that, with inflation factored in, government will spend 13.1% less on every child in 2023 than it did in 2019.
This was already evident from the Norms and Standards for school funding. In the Eastern Cape, the Norms and Standards for school funding have decreased from R1544 per learner per year in 2020, to R870 a learner in 2021 and R993 in 2022.
In his 2022 State of the Province address, Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane admitted that the education department’s financial woes contribute to poor quality education in the Province. Yet, the department forecasts continued lower spending in the 2022/23 and 2023/24 financial years. Unfortunately, it is the learners whose parents cannot afford any alternative to ‘no-fee public schools who will be prejudiced the most.
The deterioration in public education standards in the province has led to parents moving learners to independent schools. The unfortunate by-product of the exodus to independent schools is the mushrooming of illegally-operated fly by night schools.
Another area of concern is the appalling condition of the school infrastructure in the province. In 2013 the Department of Basic Education (DBE) signed into law regulations that outlined the minimum infrastructure standards for South Africa’s public schools. The minimum norms and standards for public school infrastructure includes basics such as decent toilets, sufficient electricity & water supply, access to the internet, libraries, sports facilities and laboratories.
The Eastern Cape has over 5 200 schools, 3 000 of which are without adequate sanitation and with over 1 000 schools still using pit latrine toilets. The majority of these schools fail to meet the minimum standards prescribed under the South African Schools Act.
Despite all of this, at the end of the 2022/23 fiscal year, the Eastern Cape education department forfeited R205 million meant for construction & maintenance of schools to KwaZulu-Natal because they could not spend it.
The money formed part of the R1.64 billion education infrastructure grant for the province for the 21/22 fiscal year. The underspending of the infrastructure grant funding tragically flies in the face of the inexcusable state of the province’s schools.
The right to basic education is enshrined in section 29(1) of the Constitution and it has been developed to include the basic right for learners to access textbooks, transport, teachers and appropriate infrastructure. ActionSA believes that, at the bare minimum, the provincial education budget must adequately fund these core resources.
The provincial government must improve the financial management of the education department to avoid underspending and that it can agitate for increased budget allocation from national treasury. Planning and procurement processes need to be streamlined to ensure that resources are available when needed and that the quality of education received by learners is no longer compromised.
As schools reopen on Wednesday, the 18th of January 2023, ActionSA will visit several schools in the province to assess the provincial government’s commitment to turn things around for the learners in the Eastern Cape. We will also assess the performance of the matriculants of the class of 2022 when results are released on the 20th of January 2023.
This assessment will not focus on the results alone but will closely assess the attrition rate of learners from starting school to finishing school as this data is manipulated to misrepresent the actual Matric pass rate in the Province. The youth are the future of our country and Province and we must do everything within our power to ensure that they get best possible quality of education.
Eastern Cape Education Does Not Inspire Confidence as We Anticipate 2023 Matric Results
ActionSA’s paradoxical anticipation of the Eastern Cape’ matric results for the class of 2022 is characterised by hope and angst. On the one end we are encouraged by the historical improvement in the matric pass rate (from 56.8% for the class of 2015 to 73% for the class 2021), yet on the other end angst rears its ugly head when we think about the current state of education in the province.
Concern is heightened when even the destructive South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) is reported to have warned that the Eastern Cape Department of Education is on the brink of collapse.
The challenges that marred the beginning of the 2022 school year are symptomatic of the fundamental problems with education in the Eastern Cape. For starters, the association of school governing bodies reported the Eastern Cape education department to the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) for its failure to supply stationery and textbooks in time for the reopening of schools. By the 19th of January 2022 the department had not delivered textbooks, had not paid learner transport providers, still owed education assistants their stipends and failed to fill vacant teaching posts.
As a result, some learners began their school year without teachers, textbooks, stationery and transport. Some schools were forced to repurpose their budget for nutrition to finance photocopying of textbooks for learners as a temporary measure. It took a court order, obtained by the Legal Resources Centre on the 22nd of March 2022, acting on behalf of the Khula Development Forum in Peddie, to compel the education department to deliver all textbooks and stationery by the end of the 1st quarter of 2022.
Secondly, the shortage of teaching personnel remains a matter of deep concern. It is one of the department’s key responsibilities to gauge capacity constraints and to address these timeously and effectively because basic education is a basic right. Yet, there seems to be an under-appreciation (on the part of department officials) of the effects of understaffing on the quality of education received by learners.
The province’s total budget for the 2022/23 financial year was R87.8bn, with education receiving the lion’s share of R38bn. Despite this substantial allocation, the education department cannot sort out the urgent matter of the shortage of teachers in the province. In some cases, education assistants that were hired under the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative are forced to fill the vacuum of the missing teachers by teaching entire classes unsupervised.
Notwithstanding the fact that it is against the law for education assistants to teach classes as they are neither qualified nor registered as teachers with the South African Council of Educators. Ironically, the same education assistants marched to the Department of Education’s offices on 20 June 2022 out of frustration because they had not been paid and some schools were reportedly shut down by parents to force the department to pay the assistants.
One of ActionSA’s activists in Nelson Mandela Bay, who is a maths teacher, could not be given a permanent position as a teacher, despite working as a substitute teacher for over a year. She has since opted to leave teaching as a vocation.
The National Treasury’s 2022 budget review declared that “… slow growth of 1.9% on compensation of employees in basic education over the medium term will result in fewer teachers and increased class sizes in some provinces”. It goes without saying that the poorest provinces will be the hardest hit, with the Eastern Cape being one of them.
Poorly prioritised government spending on education seems to be one of the contributing factors to the malaise. In a position paper released by the Budget Justice Coalition in November 2021, it was exposed that education’s share of government spending is declining.
Compounded by the increase in the number of learners, the reduction in spending on education has led to an anticipated 13.1% decrease in per-learner expenditure for the 2023/24 fiscal year (compared to the 2019/20 year). This means that, with inflation factored in, government will spend 13.1% less on every child in 2023 than it did in 2019.
This was already evident from the Norms and Standards for school funding. In the Eastern Cape, the Norms and Standards for school funding have decreased from R1544 per learner per year in 2020, to R870 a learner in 2021 and R993 in 2022.
In his 2022 State of the Province address, Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane admitted that the education department’s financial woes contribute to poor quality education in the Province. Yet, the department forecasts continued lower spending in the 2022/23 and 2023/24 financial years. Unfortunately, it is the learners whose parents cannot afford any alternative to ‘no-fee public schools who will be prejudiced the most.
The deterioration in public education standards in the province has led to parents moving learners to independent schools. The unfortunate by-product of the exodus to independent schools is the mushrooming of illegally-operated fly by night schools.
Another area of concern is the appalling condition of the school infrastructure in the province. In 2013 the Department of Basic Education (DBE) signed into law regulations that outlined the minimum infrastructure standards for South Africa’s public schools. The minimum norms and standards for public school infrastructure includes basics such as decent toilets, sufficient electricity & water supply, access to the internet, libraries, sports facilities and laboratories.
The Eastern Cape has over 5 200 schools, 3 000 of which are without adequate sanitation and with over 1 000 schools still using pit latrine toilets. The majority of these schools fail to meet the minimum standards prescribed under the South African Schools Act.
Despite all of this, at the end of the 2022/23 fiscal year, the Eastern Cape education department forfeited R205 million meant for construction & maintenance of schools to KwaZulu-Natal because they could not spend it.
The money formed part of the R1.64 billion education infrastructure grant for the province for the 21/22 fiscal year. The underspending of the infrastructure grant funding tragically flies in the face of the inexcusable state of the province’s schools.
The right to basic education is enshrined in section 29(1) of the Constitution and it has been developed to include the basic right for learners to access textbooks, transport, teachers and appropriate infrastructure. ActionSA believes that, at the bare minimum, the provincial education budget must adequately fund these core resources.
The provincial government must improve the financial management of the education department to avoid underspending and that it can agitate for increased budget allocation from national treasury. Planning and procurement processes need to be streamlined to ensure that resources are available when needed and that the quality of education received by learners is no longer compromised.
As schools reopen on Wednesday, the 18th of January 2023, ActionSA will visit several schools in the province to assess the provincial government’s commitment to turn things around for the learners in the Eastern Cape. We will also assess the performance of the matriculants of the class of 2022 when results are released on the 20th of January 2023.
This assessment will not focus on the results alone but will closely assess the attrition rate of learners from starting school to finishing school as this data is manipulated to misrepresent the actual Matric pass rate in the Province. The youth are the future of our country and Province and we must do everything within our power to ensure that they get best possible quality of education.