With less than a day before schools open for the start of their 2025 academic year, some of the unions in the education sector have raised alarm regarding the state of readiness in KwaZulu-Natal’s schools.
The National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa (NAPTOSA) says the provincial Department of Education ended 2024 with numerous unresolved issues that continue to affect schools across the province.
This comes as poor and historically disadvantaged schools face significant challenges due to the department’s failure to allocate them their full annual operational budgets.
They did not receive their full norms and standards allocation for 2024, and similar financial shortfalls are expected for 2025.
“Notably, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) does not meet the national funding targets for 2024–2026. Instead, the province allocates considerably less funding per learner, leaving many schools unable to procure essential teaching and learning materials for 2025.
“With municipal bills in arrears and principals struggling to keep schools operational, some institutions may not be ready to start teaching and learning on 15 January 2025. Additionally, the department has failed to finalize staffing arrangements for 2025,” NAPTOSA has said.
Last week, the South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) in KwaZulu-Natal raised almost similar concerns during its meeting to assess the readiness to open the schools in the province.
“Non allocation of funds to schools: failure by the Department to pay schools puts schools in a difficult situation wherein they can’t confidently claim to be ready for reopening. There is no stationary and no textbooks,” said Satdu, a COSATU affiliated union.
The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education has acknowledged some of the challenges in a statement released on Monday, January 13.
It said that due to financial constraints arising from recent budget cuts, the anticipated transfers outlined in KZN Circular 136 of 2024 were not realized as planned.
This was after some schools didn’t receive their teaching and learning material from unpaid service providers.
The provincial education department said in cases where suppliers are unable to deliver LTSM (Learning and Teaching Support Material –textbooks and others) despite its assurance, such cases must be clearly indicated in the attached letter.
The schools should forward these instances to District Offices for further resolution, it added.
