Story by: Thato Mgoma
Northern Cape MEC for Education, Zolile Monakali tabled the 2023/24 budget for his department for 2023/24 at the Northern Cape Provincial Legislature on 20 June 2023.
The tabling was attended by Government officials including Grade 12 leaners and community members.
The R8.067 billion included R1,043 billion is for Conditional Grants, with a R41mil increase towards Administration receiving R77million.
Monakali gloated with the 2.8% pass increase for the Grade 12 Class of 2022 pass rate. “10 072 candidates out of 13 574 full-time successfully completed their examinations, resulting in a 74.2% overall pass rate,” he said.
There is an indication that 81% of Grade 4 leaners are unable to read to understand. To mitigate this the department has planned interventions including Reading Indaba from 4 to 5 September 2023 and other programmes such as Reading Retreat which assists in establishing reading clubs, a Reading Laboratory, and Early Grade Reading Programmes.
Public Ordinary School Education also have an increase of 1.29% which brings the allocation to R5.8 billion.
There is a huge concern over the increasing rate of teenage pregnancy in ordinary schools. Approximately 900 learners between the ages of 15-19 years fall pregnant quarterly and 20 learners per quarter for learners between the ages of 10-14 years. The government is planning on intervening by organizing workshops, peer support groups and campaigns that promote “positive behavior, healthy relationships and responsible decision-making.
Allocation for Independent School Subsidies has decreased from R11.7 million to R11.5 million because only 5 qualifying Independent School will be funded this year instead of 6 like the previous year.
Public Special School Education which assists learners with special needs was allocated with R190 million which is an increase of 1.89%.
Another allocation was made to Early Childhood Development with the total amount of R207 million, a decrease from the prior year. The Department of Education and the sector have appointed 721 ECD Practitioners for a 36-months (January 2022-December 2024) on contract to ensure that there is no inconsistency in teaching and learning. There is also an increase of R500 in the stipends of level 4 and 5 Practitioners, making it R8500. Stipends for qualified (REQV13) Practitioners has increased from R11 000 to R13 000.
An increase of 4.41% was made to Infrastructure Development, resulting in a total of R717 million. School vandalism and theft remains a problem in the province, however, government has successfully held 16 outreach programmes with the purpose of building good relationships with more than 8000 community members through the ‘Love Your School’ campaign, to ensure school safety.
The Presidential Youth Employment Initiative has decrease with R11 million, resulting in the Examinations and Education Related Services receiving a budget of R352 million instead of R363 million like in the previous financial year. A total number of 6177 education assistants and general assistants were appointed from 1 April 2022 to 30 September 2022 in the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative (PYEI). The department has appointed 6108 education and general school assistants for the period of 1 February 2023 to the end of September 2023.
As the world is venturing into Artificial Intelligence (AI), the government takes it upon themselves to equip learners with Coding and Robotics skills. The Department has a coding and robotics curriculum in grade R-9 and has identified 100 schools for training and have already provided training for grade 8 and 9 from 9-13 January 2023.
The MEC congratulated Carnavon High School Robotics Team who represented South Africa in the First Lego League from 19-20 May 2023 in Morocco. “We are proud of their achievement, as they have obtained position 33 out of a total of 66 participating teams from 50 countries.”, said Zolile Monakali.
The department hopes to have a successful financial year.
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