Cape Town – BOSA leader Mmusi Maimane has criticised President Cyril Ramaphosa over his comments about setting up a fund to upgrade schools, accusing him of neglecting education while overseeing budget cuts in the sector.
Ramaphosa made the remarks at the National Teaching Awards over the weekend, expressing a desire to improve schools, including his former school, after seeing their deteriorating conditions.
“The school that I attended is in a much worse condition than it was when I attended, and that broke my heart. But that propelled me to mobilise people who attended the school to say, let us set up a fund in an attempt to improve education. Government cannot do it alone. We must join hands and be proud of the schools that we attended and do something about it now that we have become as successful as we are,” Ramaphosa said.
No Mr Ramaphosa. The fund already exists it’s called the education budget and tax payers are paying for it already.
The problem is that you keep making education a side chick. You are even cutting the budget and teachers are being fired in schools which are overcrowded.
— Mmusi Maimane MP (@MmusiMaimane) October 5, 2024
Maimane argued that education improvements should come from the existing education budget, not private initiatives, and accused Ramaphosa of making education a lower priority.
He also condemned ongoing budget cuts, overcrowded schools, and high dropout rates.
“No Mr Ramaphosa. The fund already exists it’s called the education budget and tax payers are paying for it already. The problem is that you keep making education a side chick.
“You are even cutting the budget and teachers are being fired in schools which are overcrowded. You need to pay as much attention to education as you pay to independent power producers.
“You need to stop pretending that it is okay to have an education system where a pass mark can be 30% or 40%. You need to stop acting like it’s okay to have 40% of children dropout before grade 12,” said Maimane.
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu
