NONTOBEKO MTSHALI
School infrastructure, early childhood development and teacher training are some of the sectors in Gauteng’s education system headed for major financial boosts this financial year.
When tabling the Gauteng Department of Education’s R25.9 billion budget for 2011/12 at the Gauteng Legislature yesterday, Education MEC Barbara Creecy said 700 pre-schools would be built during the 2011/12 financial year to allow the system to absorb an additional 21 000 Grade R pupils.
This would bring the number of Grade R pupils in public schools to 92 000, with an additional 5 152 pupils in independent schools.
In addition, 269 classrooms will be built in schools that don’t have Grade R classrooms.
An amount of R20 million has been set aside for start-up kits of educational toys and learning equipment for the new facilities, and a further R12m has been allocated for Grade R teacher training.
The department had been underspending its budget in Early Childhood Development since the 2008/9 financial year. Creecy said the underspending was due to the red tape schools had to endure.
From now on, she said, the department would transfer funds directly to the Grade R sites, allowing schools to buy their own resources and pay for their own running costs.
Creecy said 792 primary schools (out of a total of 1 383 public primary schools in the province) were failing to meet pupil performance standards in grades 3 and 6.
To improve this, Creecy said, the department would introduce English first additional language to Grade 1 pupils. Creecy said a pilot project, which will be launched when schools open on Monday, will help pupils grasp the language that is to become their medium of instruction at an early stage.
She said 391 high schools had been identified as underperforming, up from 276.
A total of R32.5m had been allocated for resources towards maths, science and technology in high schools, and R19. 5m had been set aside for similar subjects in primary schools.