By David Maynier
The R33.259 billion budget for Western Cape Education is the largest in the provincial budget, and prioritises the most vulnerable learners in our province. So many children in the Western Cape are living in poor communities, do not receive daily meals, do not have access to reliable transport, or have special education needs that require additional support.
That is why the Western Cape Government dedicates additional funding for direct learner support, which specifically benefits the most vulnerable learners in our province. This year, we will spend R622m providing school meals to over 537 000 learners in our schools. While the National School Nutrition Programme receives a national conditional grant, this grant does not cover the costs of food inflation, so we use funding from our own provincial share to top up the grant by R71m.
Without our additional investment, our children would not be receiving a sufficient standard of meals. We will spend R674m transporting learners to and from school. Every school day, nearly 69 000 learners benefit from our Learner Transport Scheme, which is overwhelmingly allocated to rural areas where the distances from farms to schools is vast and there is no form of public or commercial transport available.
We will spend R89.3m on fee exemptions for learners whose parents are not able to pay school fees. Many parents have faced a loss of income in this tough economic climate, and we offer them the opportunity to have their children’s school fees paid in part or full. I encourage all parents who are in this situation to take up this opportunity by applying through their school.
And we will spend R296.9m on additional no-fee schools. These are Quintile 4 and 5schools that would ordinarily be fee-charging schools, but serve learners from poor communities. So we have provided additional funding for these learners to operate on a no-fee basis. We are also expanding access to education for the most vulnerable learners in the Western Cape. This year, we will spend an additional R75m on expanding support to learners with Autism Spectrum Disorder. As research progressively sheds more light on the education needs of children with ASD, we will continue to prioritise expanding access to education for these learners and creating inclusive learning environments. We will also spend an additional R73.9m supporting Learners with Profound Intellectual Disabilities (LPID).
We have included the provision of additional classrooms for learners with Special Education Needs in our infrastructure programme, as the need for additional places in our special schools remains high. This year we are completing 25 additional classrooms at special schools, to create more places for learners with special needs. Despite the extreme budget challenges facing our department, we will continue prioritising this funding to the learners who need it most, and have not made any cuts to critical learner support like learner transport, school meals, and norms and standards transfers to our schools.
We have a vision for the future of our children and for our province, and we will continue to do everything we can to deliver quality education for every learner, in every classroom, in every school in the Western Cape.
*Maynier is the MEC for Education in the Western Cape
Weekend Argus