Students and teachers in the country’s schools will still have to bear the brunt, after the Ministry of Finance complained that it will not be able to support all the programs of the Department of Basic Education.
This was revealed by the Minister of Basic Education, Ms. Siviwe Gwarube, during a meeting with the Parliamentary committee.
As it happens, the department is facing financial challenges especially in KwaZulu-Natal, as it cannot pay on time some of the needs including school fees known by Norms and Standards. Last year he couldn’t even buy school textbooks, he only bought stationery.
Ms Gwarube said the situation will still be difficult in the department.
“The Department of the Treasury said that it will not be able to fund other programs. It has instructed us to look at where we can take money from the department’s programs, so that we can fund other programs. This will enable us to fulfill all the needs.” he says like this.
He just mentioned this, soon he is expected to present this year’s budget for the department. In this meeting, the matter that there are immigrant students in schools came up.
Ms. Gwarube said that the Constitution of the country is clear that students who do not have the qualifications to be in this country should not be marginalized.
“There are students in this country, who are in schools but do not have birth certificates. We cannot deprive them of education because they do not have birth certificates. We cannot go against what is stated in the Constitution that governs the country.”
The director general of the department, Mr. Mathanzima Mweli, said that there is no policy that students must teach each other in the same book and he said that this happened because of the lack of them.
“There are many students who use one book when it shouldn’t be like that. This is more common in grades below matric. There is no policy that says students must use one book,” he said.
There was also the issue of challenges in the school feeding system, especially in the province. What the officials of the department revealed is that in this province, more than 200,000 students were added to benefit from this program, while money was not added for them to eat.
This means that the number of students who are eating has increased since the money has not been increased.
Ms. Gwarube also pointed out that since Grade R is now mandatory, they are trying to invest so that there is no negative impact.