Education
In respect of the Department’s expenditure between 2019 and 2024 to date:
(1) what is the detailed breakdown of all the amounts that were: (i) unspent, (ii) uncommitted and (iii) surrendered to the Provincial Treasury during this period;
(2) (a) what is the total amount that has been spent on the (i) School Evaluation Authority and (ii) Back-on-Track Programme and (b) how much is budgeted for these over the 2024 MTEF?
20. My department has informed me of the following:
(1) See detail below:
No. | Description | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 |
R’000 | R’000 | R’000 | R’000 | R’000 | ||
i | Unspent | 203 634 | 556 321 | 32 347 | 36 985 | 39 535 |
Of which: Rollovers | 29 631 | 214 726 | 16 313 | 18 023 | 11 715 | |
MOD equipment | 16 088 | - | - | - | - | |
LPID CG | 2 820 | 339 | 7 441 | 4 033 | - | |
MST CG | 7 376 | 18 395 | 8 872 | - | - | |
NSNP CG | 3 347 | 6 932 | - | - | - | |
Accelerated Infrastructure Maintenance | - | 189 060 | - | - | - | |
e-Learning | - | - | - | 13 990 | - | |
MOD feeding | - | - | - | - | 11 715 | |
ii | Uncommitted | 174 003 | 341 595 | 16 034 | 18 962 | 27 820 |
iii | Surrendered to Provincial Treasury (excludes rollovers) | 174 003 | 341 595 | 16 034 | 18 962 | 27 820 |
| Surrendered as % of budget | 0.74% | 1.39% | 0.06% | 0.07% | 0.09% |
The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) consistently achieves high levels of spending efficiency, with surrendered funding below 1% (excluding Covid-19 outlier year).
In the 2019/20 financial year, the Department returned 0.74% of the budget, in 2020/21 (first year of Covid-19 pandemic) returned 1.39%, in 2021/22 returned 0.06%, in 2022/23 returned 0.7%, and in 2023/24 returned 0.09%.
In fact, the WCED’s efficiency in infrastructure spending in particular prompted the National Treasury to allocate an extra R115 million in other provinces’ unspent Education Infrastructure Grant funding to the WCED in 2023/24.
The outlier financial year of 2020/21 included the initial phases of the Covid-19 pandemic, where the hard lockdown closed schools entirely, and subsequent phases of lockdown resulted in rotational attendance at school, which affected spending. Spending was also affected by pandemic-related delays in construction, as well as national restrictions on in-person gatherings, travel, and other activities.
(2) (a)
2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 (to date) | |
R’000 | R’000 | R’000 | R’000 | R’000 | R’000 | |
School Evaluation Authority | 4 811 | 6 196 | 6 199 | 6 305 | 6 814 | 6 686 |
#BackOnTrack Programme | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | 209 230 | 137 555 |
(b) The Western Cape Education Department has already made R2.5 billion in budget cuts to non-personnel spending, including dramatic cuts to the #BackOnTrack programme budget.
In December 2023, the provincial minister announced during his Adjustment Budget Speech:
“To fund the shortfall created by this massive blow, we have had to:
- Cut back on our #BackOnTrack plans,
- Cut back on our Rapid School Build plans, and
- Reduce spending on staffing in our department.”
The following amounts were cut from the #BackOnTrack programme’s budget.
Project | 2023/24 | 2024/25 | 2025/26 | 2026/27 |
R’000 | R’000 | R’000 | R’000 | |
#BackOnTrack Programme | 143 548 | 144 440 | 148 340 | 155 015 |
The following is the remaining budget for the 2024 MTEF:
Project | 2024/25 | 2025/26 | 2026/27 |
R’000 | R’000 | R’000 | |
School Evaluation Authority | 14 975 | 15 697 | 16 439 |
#BackOnTrack Programme | 308 400 | 327 047 | 333 848 |
Nearly a third of the #BackOnTrack expenditure is on books for all Foundation Phase learners, and training their teachers to teach reading effectively. Early-grade literacy is a critical priority for our learners, so cutting support in this area would further aggravate an already serious situation.
Another large portion of the #BackOnTrack budget is the revision support to our Grade 12 learners as they prepare for their final matric exams. Our learners in poor communities are especially reliant on this support, and cutting it would be a devastating blow to our matrics.
