Cape Town - To make Grade R attendance compulsory, the Department of Basic Education (DBE) will require R14.7 billion to pay more teachers over the next three years.
The amount excludes the R1.7bn to build additional classrooms at schools that currently do not offer Grade R.
This was revealed by Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga when she was responding to parliamentary questions form DA MP Baxolile Nodada, who asked whether she had approached the National Treasury to assess the financial implications of the plan to make Grade R attendance compulsory.
In 2019, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the transfer of the early childhood development (ECD) centres from the Department of Social Development to DBE, saying there would be two years of compulsory early childhood development for all children before they entered Grade 1.
Motshekga said the department has developed the curriculum and assessment policy statements (Caps) for the foundation phase classes, including Grades R to 3.
“Curriculum has always been ready for compulsory Grade R implementation, as Caps documents for Grade R-3 subjects (Home Languages, Mathematics and Life Skills) have been available since 2011,” she said.
Motshekga also said her department had been in consultation with National Treasury on the financial implications of the plan to make Grade R compulsory.
She said the department presented the main cost implications at the the Basic Education Sector meeting in August in the context of the implementation of the entire Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill.
“Specific main cost items, related to the compulsory Grade R, were those related to additional infrastructure and personnel.”
She said there were 17 243 primary schools, but only 15 523 offered Grade R and 1 720 others did not.
The minister said there were 895 183 learners in the 1 720 primary schools that did not currently offer Grade R.
“Assume that an additional 10% of learners will attend Grade R classes at the 1 720 primary schools that do not currently offer Grade R.
“The additional 89 518 Grade R learners (10%) will require an additional 2 984 Grade R classrooms,” she said.
She added that they would need to invest R1 790 366 000 in additional classrooms.
Motshekga also said additional funds would be needed for compensation of employees. The personnel cost will include the provisioning of additional teachers and normalisation of the conditions of service for current personnel serving Grade R practitioners.
“It is estimated that an additional 6 500 educators will be required to cater to the additional migration of learners into the public education system.
“The total estimated cost, including the cost for normalisation of the conditions of service for Grade R practitioners, is about R14.7 billion over three years (the basis being the 2022 Cost to Employer),” she said.
Motshekga also said National Treasury had not provided her department with the outcomes of its assessment.
National Treasury had committed unspecified amounts for the ECD centres.
“Following the recent shift of the ECD function from social development to basic education, funding is added for the Department of Basic Education to build its oversight and monitoring capacity, and to improve and expand ECD services in provinces,” reads the 2022 Medium term Budget Policy Statement.
However, when Finance Minister Enoch tabled his budget in February, R1.1 billion was allocated for ECD subsidies to provide for and increase the number of children accessing subsidised ECD services.
A further R97.9 million was allocated for maintenance improvements to support ECD providers and to pilot the construction of new, low-cost ECD centres.
Cape Times