SOCPOL CIRCULAR NO. 5C/03
The SAOA budget and long term sustainability

Background

· Since 1997, Government Funding has amounted to a mere 14 to 16,5% of the annual SAQA budget and less than 10% from income.
· The balance (some 75%) is derived from donor funding (mainly foreign funding from the European Union).
· The NQF Report was highly critical of this Funding mix and strongly advocated that that bulk of funding for SAQA and NQF implementation be derived from Government grants from the Departments of Education and Labour, the NSF, fees for accreditation and targeted donor assistance.
· The report also believed that SAQA is inadequately staffed. It has 85 employees.

Funding mix of SAQA since inception:

· The reason given for the present situation is the historical under-funding of SAQA and the NQF by Government.
In response to the NQF report recommendations to increase staff and reduce it's reliance on foreign funding, SAQA submitted a budget of R5Sm for 2003/4. The Minister of Education is only prepared to approve a budget of R33m of which Rum will be Government funding.
· If funding is not forthcoming to cover the required budget of R58m for 2003/4, an increasing deficit will result, given an inflation rate of 6,5% per annum as illustrated in the table below.

SAQA long term budget outlook based on Government funding commitment:

· According to the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA), no public entity (including SAQA) may budget for a deficit. Donor funding that must eventually be replaced by Government Funding is considered to be a deficit.

Conclusion

· SAQA is presently under resourced and is unable to deliver on certain key outputs.
· Unless this funding crisis is averted, SAQA will be forced to reduce current essential activities. It will also find itself unable to maintain a leadership role in Education and Training in South Africa.
· This could ultimately result in Higher Education receding into isolation and the NQF becoming confined to FET and the SETAs.
· It may be argued that SAQA can be considered the custodian of Education and Training in South Africa. The respect given to this role must be questioned when the size of the SAQA budget is placed into national context. The size of public and private education and training provision in South Africa is estimated at R75bn per yea. The current and required SAQA budgets surely cannot be considered excessive or extravagant.

Ken Ball
BSA Representative on the SAQA Board