Debate on Vote 5: Education Adjustment Budget | 11 December 2025
11 December 2025 – Speech by Minister David Maynier, Minister of Education Western Cape
Yesterday, schools closed for learners, bringing to an end the 2025 school year. Our teachers will also wrap up tomorrow for a well-deserved summer holiday.
So I want to begin by thanking all of our teachers for the work you have done this year to support our learners to achieve their goals.
While it has been a tough year for our department and for our schools, we have seen some incredible highlights.
The most rewarding of these is that we are making real progress on our key educational priorities.
Policy priorities
Improving learning outcomes
Our first and foremost education priority as a government is to improve learning outcomes.
Our #BackOnTrack programme to reverse learning losses continues to go from strength to strength.
The University of Stellenbosch found that learners participating in the #BackOnTrack programme have recovered up to 205 days’ worth of learning lost during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The extra training for Grade 4 and 7 teachers has been accredited by the South African Council for Educators, so the training counts toward participating teachers’ Continuing Professional Development credit requirement.
The programme will continue next year, and will include a focus on Mathematics and Physical Science in Grades 10 to 12.
We have also announced several measures to be implemented from the start of the 2026 school year to improve early learning outcomes in the Western Cape.
We are introducing baseline assessments of literacy and numeracy skills for all Foundation Phase learners at the beginning of the school year. These will be informal, integrated assessments implemented by teachers to identify gaps in learning early, and to tailor our interventions to support learners.
We have informed all schools that reading fluency benchmarks in the Foundation Phase will be implemented in the 2026 academic year. Benchmarks serve as clear, measurable goals that guide teaching, learning, and assessment throughout the school year.
We have also launched the pilot phase of a structured numeracy intervention for teachers and learners in the Foundation Phase, following the success of our early-grade reading interventions for these grades.
The numeracy programme has been developed in partnership with Funda Wande with the support of their “Bala Wande” programme, and includes teacher training, teacher guides, learner books and Maths resource kits to support the new teaching skills.
As part of the pilot, all Grade 1 teachers at 70 schools from across the province received training during October 2025, and a full rollout to cover the full Foundation Phase will take place over the next 3 years.
And we will be continuing our extra time allocation for Mathematics and reading in the Foundation Phase. This measure, first introduced in 2022, allocates an extra 2 hours per week allocated to reading and 1 extra hour per week for Mathematics, from within the existing school day.
Expanding access to education
A further key priority for our government is expanding access to education for children in the Western Cape.
Our Rapid School Build programme is delivering new schools and classrooms across the province at a terrific pace.
We have new schools under construction in Khayelitsha, Lwandle, Wallacedene, Brackenfell, Kuilsriver, Tygerhof, Belhar, Coniston Park and Malmesbury.
We are adding additional classrooms to our new schools built through the programme to complete their phases.
These additional classrooms have been completed at our new schools in Wallacedene, Blue Downs, Lower Crossroads, Tafelsig, Lwandle, Kwanokhutula, Fisherhaven and Darling.
Additional brick-and-mortar classrooms are also being added to well-established existing schools in Philippi, Lwandle, Villiersdorp and Wellington, and have already been completed at schools in Parow and Tokai.
Two of our schools for special needs, Filia School in Goodwood and Eljada-Kairos School in Oudtshoorn have received additional classrooms this year.
We are working together with the provincial Department of Infrastructure to construct a new School of Skills in Manenberg.
The Edu Invest initiative, powered by Wesgro, is playing their part to drive greater private sector investment into education in our province, and ultimately to see new independent schools opening in our province.
They are especially targeting investments into no-fee or low-fee education, to help expand the available school options for parents in the Western Cape.
Support for school sport
Finally, I want to highlight our decision to invest in school sport. You may already be aware that we will be introducing a new Western Cape School Sport Strategy, spearheaded by the Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport.
We have allocated funding to implementing this strategy, because sport plays such a valuable role for our young people: instilling discipline, building their self-confidence, and offering an alternative to a life of crime and gangsterism.
Service delivery pressures
We will, however, continue to face significant fiscal uncertainty over the medium term.
Which is why we have adjusted the budget by R521 million, or 1.5%, and realigned funding to improve our ability to deal with service delivery pressures over the medium term.
Admissions 2026
As of 5 December 2025, we have found places for 178 773, or 95.7%, of the learners for whom applications were received for Grade R, 1 and 8 for the 2025 school year.
Placement is in progress for 7 967, or 4.3%, of Grade R, 1 and 8 learners, which is a lower number than this time last year.
We were in fact in a substantially better position up until mid-November, having found places for learners faster this year.
However, in the second half of November, we received new applications for over 3 500 Grade R, 1 and 8 learners.
These are new applications arriving more than 7 months after the on-time application window has been completed.
We will continue working to place these learners, and the extremely late applications we receive from 1 January 2026, as quickly as possible. The 10th day SNAP Survey will help us to allocate additional classrooms and teachers, in the areas of greatest demand.
One challenge we are facing is parents not answering when we have a place to offer their children. So we appeal to parents whose contact details have changed to let us know this as soon as possible.
Very importantly, if there are any parents who have not yet applied, please do so immediately, and we will leave no stone unturned to find a place for every learner.
Conclusion
In closing, it is clear that despite the overwhelming pressures on our department and on our schools, we are making progress.
When it seems like so many things are going wrong in education, it is worth remembering what is going right:
- We have the largest learning recovery programme in the country.
- We are building schools faster than any other province.
- We provide high-quality training to our teachers.
- We are exploring innovative school models and working proactively with the private sector.
- And we are focused on key priorities that will make a real difference to learning outcomes in our province.
We need to invest in quality education, to drive economic growth and create jobs, so that our children have a better future.
So together, we will deliver quality education for every learner, in every classroom, in every school in the Western Cape.