Over the past few days the fate of the education system and the delicate nature of political trade-offs were in sharp focus. The Western Cape education department announced that it would be dropping the austerity guillotine on its teaching workforce to cut more than 2, 400 jobs from the beginning of 2025.

The underlying reason for the decision is the national austerity drive implemented by the National Treasury that various departments have been asked to factor into their planning. In the basic education portfolio the implication of the funding crunch is that provincial departments have to figure out how to contain costs, account for inflationary increases and work with reduced budget allocations. ..

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