Minister Gwarube concerned about impact of budget cuts on teaching posts
Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube says she’s concerned about the impact of budget cuts on teaching posts, amid plans by the Western Cape to slash as many as 2,400 posts in 2025.
Speaking to the publication on the sidelines of Parliament on Thursday, Gwarube said she would be appealing to the National Treasury to re-consider the impact of the budget reductions.
The Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Bill will require more teaching posts to be added as grade R is made compulsory.
Gwarube said poor policy decisions in the past have led to the current predicament.
“My biggest concern and my biggest anxiety is provinces not being able to keep the same basket of posts for 2025. At the end of the day, if we say we want to improve the quality of education in South Africa, we cannot be cutting teachers out of classrooms. I cannot be having a teacher that is presiding over 50 learners in a classroom.”
Gwarube said improving the quality of education can’t be realized if teacher numbers are reduced.
“The introduction of grade R is important because it starts us with the process of including early child development into the system. That’s an important addition from the bill. So that’s why when the government talks about austerity measures, we must be serious.
“We must know what it means. We can’t be bailing out SOEs [State-Owned Enterprises] and not hiring teachers. We can’t be having vanity projects that don’t yield results and not invest in early child development.”
-EWN
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