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Education sector gets a nod with more than R500bn

Education sector gets a nod with more than R500bn
Lisakanya Venna
By Lisakanya Venna
12 Mar 2025
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Teachers can breathe a sigh of relief after the minister increased allocations for education.

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana threw a lifeline to South Africa’s embattled teachers on Wednesday, 12 March with an allocation of R508.7-billion for the learning and culture sector and R332-billion for basic education in the 2025/26 budget.

Provincial education departments have been under pressure in the face of nationwide budget cuts, with KZN reporting at least 19,000 teaching posts on the line. Western Cape teachers on contract had to swallow a hard pill of 2,407 job cuts at the beginning of this year.

Godongwana said that the “learner-teacher ratio remains higher than we would like, meaning that we still need more teachers in classrooms”.

“To prevent compensation of employees from crowding out other equally important areas of spending, R19.1-billion is added over the medium term to keep approximately 11,000  teachers in the classrooms.”

Unlike other sectors that have seen some cuts, the GNU seems to agree on this. The 2025/26 Budget expenditure on education, which remains untouched from the pre-budget, includes: 


  • R55.4-billion for the National Student Financial Aid Scheme;

  • R48.4-billion for university transfers;

  • R27.9-billion for the skills development levy institutions;

  • R21.6-billion for education administration; and

  • R14.2-billion for technical and vocational education and training.


NSFAS loans and ECD support


R210-million will be reprioritised in the 2026/27 and 2027/28 for the construction and upgrade of Early Childhood Learning Centres (ECD).  Teacher training and the development of new teaching and learning resources will see R99-million redirected its way over the medium term.

The Department of Higher Education and Training will implement a pilot student funding model for the missing middle for students from families with annual income of R350,000 to R600,000, which serves as a loan rather than a bursary. NSFAS will then manage these loans using funds that will be provided by the National Scheme Fund.

Additionally, the arts, culture, sport and recreation sector will receive R38.4-billion over the medium term in support of the national recreation events, school sports, the promotion of cultural, heritage and linguistic diversity of South Africa as well as some sporting codes.

Dire predictions fail to materialise


While the Western Cape Education Crisis Committee warned of “more misery for the poor and the working class” in previous expected Budget speech due to expected budget cuts, the actual allocations for education were more generous than anticipated.

Member of the Coordinating Group of the Western  Cape Education Crisis Committee, Abeedah Adams, told Daily Maverick before the Budget: “We don’t expect any improvement; in fact we are mobilising as the united front of trade unions, federations and social movements… given the Medium Term Budget policy statements from the finance minister in October… we know this will probably mean less allocation for education and health, which has an impact on poor and working-class communities.” DM

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