SADTU Teachers at Work, with logo, smaller.png
SADTU Limpopo Province, 18 April 2015 Response on Budget Speech for Limpopo Department of Education SADTU Limpopo Province welcomes the presentation of the 2015/2016 budget speech by acting MEC of Education, Mr A.J Ndou. The budget is welcomed with mixed feelings because there are some notable areas of progress whilst the Union is seriously concerned about inadequate provisions on some areas which are indicated below. The Union is not oblivious of the economic environment in which the budget is presented. SADTU holds a strong view that education is the cornerstone for development of any community and therefore it must be adequately resourced and managed. Areas of concerns Infrastructure Provisioning The Union is concerned by continuous failure to provide safe infrastructure to schools. We note that previously around 2012/13 budget period, a huge amount of ± R850 000 was rolled-back to Treasury because of lack of capacity to implement infrastructure development plans. It should be communicated years back because the apartheid regime never cared about education of a black person and such schools do not meet expected standards of an ordinary school. Attempts by government to improve infrastructure in schools are noted and appreciated against the backlog created by the apartheid machinery, however the Union regrets failure to address the 677 projects targeted in the previous period and only 56 main infrastructures were completed. The province has realised a serious infrastructure backlogs especially on sanitation and water provisioning and the Union is still having scars on how an innocent life was lost due to improper toilet facilities in one school in Capricorn District. Teachers continue to teach in dilapidated classrooms and conditions which are not conducive for education and definitely this has impact on results including Grade 12. Norms and Standard Provisioning The Union is disappointed by the cut for school funding to R323, 50 per learner for quintile 1-3 schools. Against all the backlogs which schools have reported, the Union was anticipating ± R550.00 per learner for school funding for quintile 1-3. The cut is simply a nice ingredient for crisis and chaos in terms of running schools and effect on learner performance. These cuts limit schools to provide performance interventions such as winter enrichment classes, etc. The department should be mindful of these cuts when performance will generally decline and stop putting the blame on teachers and schools for the department’s inadequate school funding. Subsidy to Private Schools The Union demand that the department must stop subsidizing private schools. These schools as acclaimed to be independent, they must independently procure their own funding. SADTU regrets that R118 million is spent on private education which could have been used for the benefit of children of the poor in public schools. Learners in private schools are from parents who could afford luxurious and expensive school funding. The Union demands that this money must be withdrawn from private schools and be channeled to public schools otherwise private schools can afford on their own. Taxes from the poor workers cannot be used to fund private education. SADTU demands that legislation be amended to prohibit profit making in education. LSEN Schools Public LSEN schools are not prioritised in the province. Budget provided is not coming closer to the needs of these schools. LSEN is a highly specialised therapist is employed by the Department in the whole Province and the Union demand that department must hire therapists and psychologists and other specialised personnel. Learner Improvement Interventions The department is only deploying “window dressing” to learner improvement interventions to mislead and only convince themselves through the broadcast interventions. This is done as an attempt to run away from real interventions proposed to the department. We made several calls for department to fund learner improvement interventions such as enrichment classes. The current arrangement where schools have their own expensive enrichment classes is seen by SADTU as a discrimination activity against the poor because only children from rich background can afford such interventions whilst majority of the poor and working class are excluded. Nutrition and Scholar Transport We welcome acknowledgement to review the NSNP supply because it was used for corruption and targeted learners were not adequately benefiting from the scheme due to poor and corrupt procurement of suppliers. It is hoped that Unions and communities will be involved in the review process. The speech lacked details or substance about the provision of scholar transport and addressing previous inadequate provisions especially in the light of the merging of schools. The Union will hold the department to account and be responsible for providing scholar transport in merging of schools irrespective of lack of presentation of funds on scholar transport. Prepared by SADTU Limpopo Province Secretariat Contacts: Raphasha M.J., 082 804 0800 Tjebane S.S., 082 808 3161 -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. 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