Honourable Speaker, over R640 billion will be allocated to basic education during the next three years.

Under Minister Motshekga’s oversight, personnel planning for schools is being reviewed to ensure that learner-teacher ratios are maintained at appropriate levels.

The number of qualified teachers entering the public service is projected to increase from about 8 200 in 2012/13 to 10 200 in 2017/18. To support teacher training, R3.1 billion will be awarded in funza lushaka bursaries over the next three years.

We will distribute 170 million workbooks to over 23 000 public schools over this MTEF period. Each learner in Grades R to 9 will receive two books per subject each year in numeracy, mathematics, literacy, language and life skills.

The school infrastructure backlogs programme is allocated R7.4 billion for the replacement of over 500 unsafe or poorly constructed schools, as well as to address water, sanitation and electricity needs. The education infrastructure grant of R29.6 billion over the medium term will enable all schools to meet the minimum norms and standards for school infrastructure by 2016.

The budget also includes R4.1 billion over the MTEF period to build and support public libraries. School and community sport programmes and sports academies will receive R1.7 billion in conditional allocations to provinces.