Yesterday the Gauteng Members of the Executive Council (MECs) held a briefing for the 2022/2023 budget for the province and, today, the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) has highlighted some of the facts and figures from that briefing.

The official Twitter account for the GDE has, over the last few hours, shared the sections which relates to it and education in the province.

You can read these all on Twitter, but that site remains one of the worst to read long threads.

Instead we have provided the key messages from the briefing and the GDE below, divided into two sections: monetary and operational.

The monetary section includes all mentions of actual Rand amounts while the operational one contains the rest.

Monetary budget mentions

• “[The DGE] spends on average 8.4% (R5.0 billion) of its budget on Administration. In addition: 
  • Public Special School Education is allocated R4,8 billion
  • Infrastructure Development is allocated R1,7 billion
  • Examination & education-related Services which is allocated R2,7 billion
  • Independent School Subsidies get R1 billion and
  • Early Childhood Development receives R1.9 billion
• The Public Ordinary Schooling sector remains the largest sub-sector of the provincial education system, being allocated the lion’s share of R42.3 billion which constitutes 70.9% of the total [GDE]budget.
• R7.8 billion of the total [GDE] budget, is allocated to Transfers & Subsidies to schools. Transfers & Subsidies budget increased with more than R1.2 billion & constitute 18.3% of the total budget. Payment for capital assets amounts to R1.2 billion.
• The [GDE] budget increases by 10.5%, or R5.6 billion, from R54 billion in 2021/22 to R59.7 billion in 2022/23. The Compensation of Employees remains the largest cost centre of the budget, amounting to R42.0 billion – which is 70.8% of the total budget.”

Operational mentions

• “We have identified almost 5 sites across the province to unveil what we call ‘ECDs of the Future’ or ‘Crèches of the Future’. These sites will be in Soshanguve, Bram Fischerville, Ratanda, Greater Tembisa and Bekkersdal. 
• The [GDE] has committed to building new ECD facilities, enhance & scale-up teacher training, provide subsidies or establish ECD centres to ensure that rural, informal settlement & unemployed families have access to early learning opportunities.
• [GDE] will be developing an ECD Human Resource Strategic Workforce Plan that will build on the existing workforce. The plan will outline the qualifications that are available for ECD practitioners. This plan will only come into effect in 2023
• The [GDE] is committed to implementing two compulsory years of early childhood development for all children before they enter the formal school system in Grade 1.
• In 2022/23, [the GDE] aims to register 400 Grade R practitioners for a Bachelor of Education Degree & 500 Pre-grade R practitioners for upskill in qualification on ECD NQF Level 4.
• [The GDE] will work with the [Gauteng Department of Social Development] & municipalities to identify targeted private Grade R centres registered with GDSD & local government & provide them with curriculum support & training.
• To further improve the quality of Grade R teaching, all Grade R practitioners are required to acquire a minimum qualification and skills to teach Grade R.
• Private Grade R sites will be registered through the introduction of provincial regulations, to ensure that there is an adequate mix of public, private & community-based Grade R sites.
• To date [the GDE] has offered ECD to over 164 000 learners in schools & community-based sites. We will be expanding Grade R to all public primary schools regardless of their socio-economic status.
• As of 1 April 2022, ECD functions are now firmly with [the GDE], a major achievement that will allow our children to grow in an education environment & cease with the old approach of considering ECD centres as existing to only provide child care.”