South Africa: Provincial Education Belt Tightens

Provincial education budgets this year show a stark and widening gap between government policy aims and available funding. This is the main finding of the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa) in its analysis of these budgets. As a result, apparently priority areas such as early childhood development (ECD), adult education and training, and education for learners with special needs will be especially hard hit, suggests Idasa researcher Russell Wildeman in his provincial education budget analysis, released this month.