FS Schools still not paid last year’s 4th Quarter subsidies
24 April 2017
The Free State Provincial Department of Education has still not paid the fourth quarter subsidies to schools in the province.
Every year we sit with the same problem because the department, despite being under Provincial Treasury administration, continues to mismanage its finances.
The late payment of subsidies to schools will have a negative impact on the ability of schools to deliver the basic services needed to learners in order to maintain an environment that is conducive to learning.
Without these subsidies many schools will not be able to pay their water and electricity bills, or procure basic stationery, or maintain a functional administrative office.
The late payment of these subsidies may result in some schools closing their doors until such time as the subsidies get paid.
Education MEC Tate Makgoe has reportedly said that no schools in the province will close since the process to close schools is legislatively tedious, which is completely beside the point, school are threatened with temporary closure due to a lack of funds, we are not talking here of permanent closure of schools.
MEC Makgoe further went on to explain that the reason for the late payment of subsidies is a result of the start of the new financial year and that the department is still waiting for the transfer of funds for the new financial year from National Treasury.
We regret that MEC Makgoe is deliberately misleading the people of the Free State. These fourth quarter subsidies were budgeted for in the previous financial year and it follows that these funds were already disbursed by National Treasury to the department just before the start of the fourth quarter in January this year.
The bigger question we need to ask here is what instead did the department use the money meant for school subsidies for?
For several years now the department has been left crippled by financial mismanagement and poor planning.
Just last month the department lost R86 million from its infrastructure grant, and over the last several years, the department has had to cut back funding on its school nutrition programme and learner transport services. These cutbacks are leaving more learners hungry and forcing many learners to walk long distances or making use of unsafe transportation to get to school.
Despite these serious problems persisting within the department and the negative impact these have on learners and teachers alike, MEC Makgoe still thinks he is in charge of the best performing department in the country. He seriously needs a wake-up call.
MEC Makgoe has committed to the payment of subsidies by the end of this week. We will hold him to that promise. In the meantime, we will submit written questions to MEC Makgoe asking after the amounts owed to each school, the payments made, the reason for late and/or partial payments, and if there is a plan to end late payments, by what date the plan will be realised.
Undoubtedly the ANC cannot fix this education crisis. We have to live with the reality that it would take a DA government, elected in 2019, to fix it.
Issued by Mariette Pittaway, DA MPL in the Free State Provincial Legislature, 24 April 2017
