Speaking at the 2023 Budget Speech this afternoon, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana revealed that government plans to spend a whopping R1.4 trillion over the next three years on Higher and Basic education and the sports, arts and culture function.
The minister noted that over the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), the Department of Higher Education’s (DHET) expenditure is expected to reach some R135,6 billion in 2023/24, R148,3 billion in 2024/25 and rise to R153, billion in 2025/26.
He said that for the 2023/24 financial year, at least R50 billion will be allocated to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) – which will be the departments biggest spending point.
Godongwana continues, “DHET’s second biggest spending point in 2023/24 is expected to be universities’ subsidies coming in at some R44.4 billion.”
While spending at Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges and Community Education and Training (CET) centres combined will reach at least R15 billion in 2023/24.
The department explained that expenditure for the post-school education and training sector increases at an average annual rate of 5% over the medium term.
This expenditure supports universities, technical and vocational education, and training (TVET) colleges, CET colleges and sector education and training authorities in delivering quality post-school education and training.
Furthermore, the DHET has decided to allocate R1.1 billion over the medium term for the Community Education and Training (CET) sector.
This will support and enable the CET sector to build its own infrastructure for learning and teaching, reducing its current reliance on basic education school infrastructure.
National treasury also noted that the Sports, Arts and Culture sectors will receive some R35.7 billion over the MTEF to “support sports in schools and preserve, develop and promote cultural, heritage and linguistic diversity, and build social cohesion”.
The Finance Minister also announced further increases to funding in other sectors, including social development and particularly Eskom that aims to mitigate the country's power crisis.
