KZN Education Department ‘seeks creative solutions’ as budget cut affects training, nutrition and transport

Following an outcry sparked by the Western Cape Education Department’s slashing of more than 2,000 teaching posts for 2025, Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube acknowledged that it had been “years in the making” and that other provinces faced similar budget shortfalls.

KwaZulu-Natal’s Department of Education is among those that have limited resources to maintain essential educational provisions, affecting on-the-ground operations, with educators, civil society and parents concerned about the effect it will have on learners.

KZN Premier Thamsanqa Ntuli has highlighted how education is in a vulnerable position due to the national government’s austerity measures, with the provincial department facing a R5-billion budget reduction in the medium term.

The department has had to scramble to stretch its funds to minimise the effect on the most vulnerable of South Africans.

Impact on learners

A KZN education official, who did not want to be named, said the budget cuts may present as just numbers on a page, mismanagement of funds and “government misaligning their priorities”, but “it is important to consider how the children may be affected” beyond staffing shortages.

KZN is not planning to make teacher cuts, but Daily Maverick understands that efforts to fill vacant posts have been delayed.

While some teaching posts have been filled, there has been a mishap with the calculation formula to appoint the correct number of teachers at the correct schools, according to the source.

“The post-provisioning number, which is the formula used to calculate posts, is done by one person — that person is on sick leave. The department brought in another person to assist; however, the wrong formula was used, so that needs to be managed still.”

There have also been concerns from inside sources and non-profit organisations (NPOs) over the state’s capacity to resource schools with textbooks, the National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP) and learner transport.

As recently as August 2024, 10% of food suppliers had not been paid by the KZN Department of Education to supply schools with food. While suppliers were eventually paid, concerns remain.

Read more: KZN school feeding scheme suppliers to sue education department over payment delays

KZN has one of the highest numbers of learners within the basic education system, and is one of the provinces most affected by poverty, according to Sue Wildish, managing director of the Lunchbox Fund, a national NPO helping food-insecure children to receive an education.

She said the province was particularly vulnerable because of “national, provincial and municipal corruption, and HIV — taking out two full generations of parents, leaving caregiving in the hands of elderly people living on grants [and] loss of jobs that never came back due to Covid-19”.

In the town of Folweni, south of Durban is Golokodo Primary School, a public school serving just under 700 primary school learners. Deputy principal Gloria Mgwaba said the majority of learners depended on being able to eat at school.

“In the community we serve, most of the parents here live off social grants and employment is an issue. [Learners] come from homes where their parents may not have finished school, or adults born in the 90s and early 2000s that do not have the financial strength to go to university.”

Mgwaba said the money received from social grants was often used by the children’s guardians to buy food but was seldom enough to last a month.

“Sometimes, children will bring an extra container and use it to carry some leftovers from the day’s rationed food in hopes of feeding others at home,” she said.

The town of Folweni. (Photo: Nkululeko Ndlovu)

Lorna Naidoo, a committee member of Earth Angels, an NPO operating in the Phoenix and Chatsworth areas of Durban, said: “We, on a weekly basis, assist four schools with meals for 150 kids. Every time I approach a ward councillor to assist families with meals or groceries they always say that they are unable to assist. That just makes me laugh as they don’t even try to help, they can so easily say ‘no’.”

Buyisiwe Mzimela, a parent at Nkume Primary School in Eshowe, said that without the food provided at the school, she would not be able to feed her daughter.

“My husband, myself and her siblings have to wake up and leave for work as early as 5am to arrive on time,” said Mzimela.

“There is no time to prepare the already scarce food at home, or even give them a complete meal. My child has to get to school on her own. The school is what keeps us going.”

The provincial department did not respond directly to Daily Maverick’s questions about whether the feeding scheme’s budget would be reduced but said it remained committed to the NSNP.

Finding solutions and cutting costs

According to the KZN education official, to cope with the financial pressures, the KZN Department of Education is “repurposing funds in different directions in an effort to mitigate a complete halt” of certain key programmes.

One of these costs is teacher development, which the official says the department will cut by replacing training in hotel conference rooms or halls with online training.

Mlungisi Mtshali, media liaison at the KZN Department of Education, said the purpose of teacher training workshops was “to improve learner attainment through a competent cohort of educators.

“The overall cost of running training workshops through hotels has, sometimes, proven to be cheaper than using some state facilities due to lack of other resources that are necessary for a successful session.”

Other department programmes that have been affected include learner transport and the directorate of quality assurance.

In an address to the provincial legislature on the KZN provincial education budget for 2024/25, MEC Sipho Hlomuka highlighted the financial stress on the provincial learner transport programme.

“Instead of receiving R549,615,585.55, the programme was allocated R278,419,000, leaving it with a shortfall of R271,196,585.55,” said Hlomuka in August 2024.

Regarding cuts to quality assurance, the education department source said, “Quality assurance would mean inspectors visiting schools to ensure that schools are not falling out of line by doing their own thing, upholding the required curriculum and policy standards. Their kilometres are also at risk of being cut to save money.” DM