Minister of Higher Education Naledi Pandor welcomed Finance Minister Tito Mboweni’s announcement that education and culture will continue to receive the largest share of South Africa’s 2019 budget, with basic education allocated R262.4 billion in the next financial year.
“This is very good for the country because it means we begin to increase the higher level skills in South Africa, but I hope that the students will work hard to ensure that they pass,” Pandor said.
“We do have conditions attached to the bursary which require you to get down and do the work that must be done but it’s great that we are supporting young people this way in South Africa.”
Tabling the 2019 budget in Parliament on Wednesday, Mboweni said while most of the budget will be used to pay teachers, the government has allocated around R30 billion to building new schools and maintaining existing infrastructure.
He said that over the medium term government will spend R111.2 billion to ensure that 2.8 million deserving students from poor and working-class families obtain their qualifications at universities and TVET colleges.
-ANA, editing by Lindiz van Zilla
