For education specialist Graeme Bloch, finance minister Trevor Manuel has once again shown commitment to SA's people through his emphasis on human capital and social expenditure in general.
Bloch, who is based with the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), says this is shown by the fact that education is again the largest item in the budget as well as by the growth in education spend over the years.
At almost R121bn, this year's education budget represents an increase of R14,3bn (11,5%) over last year's. It is estimated to be around 6% of GDP, one of the highest among developing countries.
However, analysts caution that it has actually declined in real terms in recent years, and that the consequences are only now becoming evident.
"The decline happened at a time when we were undertaking major curriculum and structural changes, so it remains to be seen whether we can catch up," says University of the Witwatersrand professor of education Brahm Fleisch.
Manuel has also allocated R1,4bn for higher education, research and knowledge development.
This year, government has chosen to focus on early childhood education and inception-year schooling, school infrastructure, school nutrition, textbooks and teacher remuneration - all of which are priority issues for provinces.
According to Manuel, over the next three years provinces have budgeted to spend more than R18bn on school infrastructure and equipment. And the early-childhood education programme is now expanded to 600 000 more children, effectively putting basic pre school education within reach of even the poorest households.
Analysts are especially pleased about the emphasis on preschool education and nutrition. "The school nutrition programme and early childhood education are important foundations in achieving quality in the long run," says Fleisch. "And because these priorities are being set at national level, it means the provinces know what they have to do."
With the bulk of the budget going to schools and early education, just under R12bn will go to universities and technikons. Higher-education spending has been increasing at an average annual rate of 10,6%, due largely to additional allocations to institutions for the renewal of infrastructure and academic programmes.
Allocations have also been directed to tertiary institutions to improve their graduate outputs, particularly in the scarce and critical skills such as engineering and other science and technology fields.
The budget of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) increased from a little over R926m to R1,3bn this year, and it will climb to over R2bn by 2010. Figures released by national treasury show that 130 000 students have been assisted over the past academic year, compared with 86 000 in 2002. The numbers are expected to climb substantially with the new injection of funds.
In addition to managing student funds, the NSFAS was also responsible for three new bursary schemes introduced last year, one of which was the Funza Lushaka scheme specifically set up for teacher training. Last year 3 842 bursaries were awarded under this scheme.
Bloch says the promise to improve teachers' financial circumstances is welcome, and this now puts increased responsibility on teachers to rise to the challenge.
"More needs to be done to support teachers, and to move them from being opponents of government on labour relations issues to partners in the building of quality education," says Bloch.
NSFAS was also responsible for the R600m set aside for further education & training (FET) college bursaries and another scheme for the training of social workers. Over the past 12 months, 12 378 FET students were awarded bursaries.
To date the NSFAS has received R473m in repayment of study loans.
The budget also separately provides for an additional R300m for strengthening the scientific capacity of higher education institutions and for enhancing their status as centres for technological innovation.
The number of university research chairs is projected to increase by at least 30% over the next three years, providing mentorship to post graduate students, including those studying engineering.
