The department of basic education (DBE) has reported significant improvements in its performance indicators.
This comes alongside the steady implementation of curriculum, infrastructure and teacher-development programmes during its first and second quarter 2025-26 briefing to parliament’s portfolio committee on basic education on Tuesday.
Presenting its progress, the DBE said it had expanded its output measures dramatically.
It noted that “there are 24 quarterly targets in 2025-26, compared to eight in 2024-25, which represents a 200% increase”.
For the second quarter, the department reported “24 quarterly targets and two biannual targets […] compared to eight and one in 2024-25, which represents a 190% increase”.
R35.4bn budget
The department’s total 2025-26 appropriation stands at R35.489 billion, with 85% allocated to transfer payments, including R28.564 billion in conditional grants.
The DBE said the remainder of the budget, R5.334 billion, was allocated to compensation, goods and services, capital assets and interest.
Actual spending for the first quarter reached R21.014 billion, of which R19.152 billion went to transfers.
The department reported: “Expenditure amounting to R17.723 billion is made up of conditional grants. The remainder of the expenditure, R1.862 billion, is compensation of employees, goods and services, interest and capital assets.”
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Curriculum monitoring
Under Programme 2, the DBE intensified curriculum support efforts.
Officials monitored 149 schools for entrepreneurship education, 33 schools for early grade reading assessment and 17 schools for reading norms implementation, focusing on quintiles 1–3.
The department also confirmed that “1 314 985 children have access to ECD programmes”, as provinces continue integrating early-learning services following the migration of ECD oversight to the DBE.
Workbooks for Grades R–9 were delivered across all provinces for the 2025 school year, the second-quarter report showed.
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Teacher development and HR systems
The DBE reported progress in teacher development and staffing, saying “8 647 bursaries were awarded for initial teacher education as of 30 September 2025″.
It also monitored 58 provincial teacher development institutes and district teacher development centres.
A new standard operating procedure for removing educators listed in the sex offenders’ registry was submitted to district heads “to ensure that districts follow due procedure in dealing with those alleged to have committed sexual offences”.
Under Programme 4, the DBE conducted monitoring visits to 582 underperforming secondary schools and delivered 29 sanitation projects and 17 new classrooms aimed at reducing overcrowding.
Safety programmes expanded, with the DBE noting that the ministers of basic education and police had “signed the revised DBE/Saps implementation collaboration protocol” to strengthen school safety initiatives.
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