Spending on South African education will receive a high priority this year, with Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan allocating more than R189-billion to the sector for 2011/12. This is up by 9.7 percent over 2010/11.
During his Budget speech to Parliament in Cape Town recently Minister Gordhan also announced an allocation of R8.3-billion to the Department of Basic Education for school infrastructure, while R1-billion goes to the funza lushaka teacher bursaries and bursaries for top students in natural science.
This allocation will enable the Basic Education Department to replace about 3 627 informal and unsafe school structures, especially in the Eastern Cape to address the lack of proper classrooms there.
More than R75-million would go towards strengthening oversight, monitoring and evaluation. This is for the national assessments in literacy and numeracy for all grades 3, 6 and 9 pupils, that will be conducted in all schools this year. More than 6.6-million learners have been budgeted for.
Improving South African education is high among the government’s priorities, with President Jacob Zuma earlier this month pushing the concept of “the three Ts” – teachers, textbooks and time – for basic education in the country.
To read the original article go to Chris Bathembu’s go to SouthAfrica.info by Clicking Here!
Filed under: Department of Basic Education, Edu News (South Africa), Minister of Basic Education, Statistics | Tagged: allocation, basic education, budget, Chris Bathembu, Education, funza lushaka, Pravin Gordhan. Finance Minister, school infrastructure, Schools, South Africa, teacher bursaries | Comments Off on Budgeting for improved education in South Africa
