THREE DAY WORKSHOP ON MTEF EDUCATION BUDGETS

7 July 1998

Ensuring meaningful participation by stakeholders in the budgeting process for education was one of the agreements arising out of discussions held through Nedlac subsequent to the tabling of Section 77 notices of intended protest action by the teacher unions SADTU and the SAOU earlier this year.

In terms of this, the Education Labour RelationsCouncil will be hosting a three day workshop, facilitated by Nedlac, during which nationaland provincial departments of education, national and provincial treasuries, and representatives of the teacher unions SAOU, NAPTOSA and SADTU, also on the national andprovincial levels, will deliberate on MTEF (Medium Term Expenditure Framework) education budgets They will pay particular attention to the implications of budgets for post provisioning, and issues of equity, redress and transformation of education delivery.

The first session will deal with the MTEF process in general and the national budget framework. Then the spotlight will turn on education budgeting in particular, which according to the Constitution, is a function of provincial government. The workshop will break into nine commissions, each dealing with a provincialbudget. The commissions will examine the 1998/99 budgets, and then give their input into the 1999/2000 budgets.

The workshop begins this afternoon (Tuesday 7July), and runs until Thursday 9 July, at the Airport Holiday Inn. The workshop is not open to the media, however we will keep the media informed if there is to be a briefing at the end of the workshop.