Staff Reporter
The Free State Department of Education says it will not allow its limited budget in the 2021/2021 financial year to stand in its way for another top finish in this year’s National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations as its priorities are clearly set.
Education MEC Tate Makgoe said in an interview that his department only got about 60 percent of what it anticipated but does not believe the class of 2021 will be disadvantaged because they will strive to make the most with what they got.
“We are relatively happy, but we are not completely happy because we did not receive what we thought we would get,” he said.
The allocation for the provincial education department grew slightly by 0.3 percent.
“But given the circumstances, there is nothing we can do. We will have to sit down, relook all our projects and re-plan so that the class of 2021 is not disadvantaged compared to other classes,” the MEC pointed out.
Makgoe acknowledged that it was very difficult to share the budget which has been drastically adjusted to accommodate programmes to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
The education department was allocated R15.475 billion for the 2021/22 financial year.
It will receive R15.555 billion in 2022/23 and R15.637 billion in 2023/24.
It will also receive a conditional grant of R4.284 billion over the next three years of which R2.633 billion relates to school infrastructure.
“However, it means that we will not be able to roll out most of the programmes that we want . . . especially programmes such as supporting learners during the COVID-19 time through online learning and other forms of support,” Makgoe said.
“We will have to go back to the drawing board to see how we can do that.
“We still want to be number one in 2021. We still want to be the best province.
“We still want to make sure that every learner in the Free State has got the support that is necessary so they can give us the best results that they can.”
The Free State scooped the top spot in the 2020 NSC exams for a record fifth time over the past eight years.
The province achieved a pass rate of 85.1 percent.
If progressed learners or those who are allowed to go to Grade 12 despite failing Grade 11 are excluded, the pass rate for the province would jump to 91.6 percent.
Some of the key priorities of the budget include:
- National school nutrition programme
- Norms and standards in schools
- Learner transport programme
- Learner teacher support material
- School connectivity
- School hostels support
- Sanitary dignity project
- Matric support programmes
- Education infrastructure programme
- Secondary school support
- Learners with profound intellectual disabilities