Gauteng Education Department says it will spend R2.2 billion of its R5.2 billion budget allocation from the provincial Finance Department to fill critical posts.
The department says also more educators will be hired to help to deal with the growing number of learners in schools.
MEC Panyaza Lesufi says the allocation is a major boost for his department as overcrowding is a challenge.
“We have this vocational programme and in the middle of the year, unfortunately, Cabinet took a decision that our learners must come back. We were caught off guard and on the basis of that, we have overcrowding.
We’ve got classrooms that are overpopulated. So because of that, we need to hire more educators. Fortunately, we’ve got lots of young people who are unemployed so we will move with speed when we get the budget.”
Gauteng unveils R400 billion
The Gauteng provincial government has unveiled a total budget of more than R400-billion over the next three years geared towards growing the economy battered by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and last July’s unrest.
The biggest allocation of this budget will go towards new infrastructure development projects which the provincial government hopes will not only stimulate the economy but help create jobs as well.
Gauteng Finance MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko says over the next three years, R36.8 billion will be spent towards infrastructure projects – including the upgrading of roads, the refurbishment of hospitals, the construction of four new schools and the funding of the Special Economic Zones announced by Premier David Makhura in his State of the Province Address.
During his speech, Makhura highlighted the dismal performance, capacity challenges and corruption allegations against senior managers in the infrastructure department, as areas of concern which contributed to project delays and cost overruns. But Nkomo-Ralehoko says this is being attended to.
Publishers
Meanwhile, there are growing calls for the government to drive the transformation of the educational publishing sector.
The publishing of primary and high school books is still largely dominated by a few large multinational publishers.
The educational book market is the backbone of the publishing industry in the country.
The publishing industry was worth an estimated R3.5 billion in revenue in 2019. Educational books contribute around 60% of the revenue in the industry, due to the large school-going population.
