(Archive photo: Christel Cornelissen/Maroela Media)
South Africa spends more on politicians and prisoners per day than on learners per month.
This according to Riaan van der Bergh, deputy head of the school governing body organization Fedsas and head of the organisation’s Center for Finance and Risk Management, who put the government’s spending priorities into perspective after the recent budget speech.
Big Mac index
South Africa’s total education expenditure amounts to approximately R350 billion. Van der Bergh says the country still spends more per day on politicians and prisoners than on the country’s learners per month.
The famous Big Mac index is widely used to make a comparison between the purchasing power of different currencies. This is based on the price of a Big Mac burger at McDonald’s in different countries. For perspective, Van der Bergh used the South African government’s spending priorities as a “learning unit” based on the same principle as the Big Mac index.
School feeding programs spend an average of R3 per learner per day – but only on school days. If weekends and holidays are included, the amount is R1.90 per learner per day.
The National Norms and Standards for School Funding, which is allocated to schools for, among other things, study materials, electricity, water and stationery, works out to about R5 per learner per day. The total public expenditure per learner per day therefore works out to between R7 and R10. This forms the baseline and is seen as one learner unit.
“Now compare this with the government’s spending of around R130 000 per prisoner per year, or R363 per prisoner per day. This is equal to 36 learner units per day, which means that as much is spent on one prisoner daily as on 36 learners,” says Van der Bergh.
“An ordinary member of parliament’s annual salary is approximately R1.27 million, while a senior member of parliament’s annual remuneration is between R2.6 million and R3.1 million. Members of parliament also receive accommodation, flights and travel allowance, security and other perks,” says Van der Bergh.
“If we assume that a basic parliamentary salary works out to about R3 490 per day, this equates to 349 learner units per day. One MP receives the daily funding of 349 learners.”
Van der Bergh says the difference in funding remains clear, even if the broad generalizations on which the learner unit is based are taken into account.
In his State of the Union address earlier this year, Pres. Cyril Ramaphosa emphasizes that investment in the country’s children is essential for South Africa’s future.
“Unfortunately, money is spent on correctional services, parliamentary towns and inflated political structures while our country’s future spends its days in overcrowded classrooms without teachers or textbooks,” says Van der Bergh.
It must also be borne in mind that only around 7% of the education budget actually reaches the school gate, with parents financing schools to the tune of around R60 billion per year, says Van der Bergh.
“At 93%, almost the entire education budget is spent on salaries and administrative expenses. The remaining 7% must cover everything that makes learning possible. This amount is cut so thin that a textbook in Limpopo competes with a leaking toilet in the Northern Cape, which in turn competes with a broken fence in the Eastern Cape.”
Spending ‘reverse’ of country’s needs
(Photo by Lulama Songelwa-Beje/GroundUp)
What is the economic dividend of an investment in education compared to prisons and politicians?
Van der Bergh explains that education is a so-called high-yield investment.
“Each rand invested in basic education contributes between R5 and R12 to GDP over time. The detention of criminals is again a net economic expense: Each rand spent on prisoners brings in about 40c at best – and this often reduces GDP through a loss of productivity.”
“Politicians’ salaries are an operating expense, not an investment.
“They do not bring in any direct, measurable GDP dividends, except when linked to exceptional government outcomes and South Africa’s indicators do not indicate this,” he says.
Van der Bergh warns that the country’s spending is the reverse of the country’s needs.
“South Africa will not collapse because it funds its prisoners or overpays members of parliament. Nor is this a call for a reduction in spending on correctional services, although most members of parliament could comfortably do with less.”
“This is an appeal for more money for the one group that can prevent South Africa from collapsing: our learners.
“If the South African government continues to fund the present, it could destroy our future.”