Little to no research has been undertaken to date on the extent of public funding of Open Educational Resources (OER) within basic education in South Africa. This study aimed to develop an understanding of government funding allocated to educational resources in basic education (K-12 equivalent) in South Africa. As claims have been made about the potential cost reduction that comes with using OER, the main intention of the study was to establish a benchmark of public spending on educational resources in order to be able to assess possible cost savings of OER.
A desk review and document analysis process was undertaken in which official information sources on South African basic education were reviewed to develop a conceptual understanding of the South African government’s funding allocation model for educational resources. The budget allocations for on Learning and Teaching Support Material for the Provincial Departments of Education (PDEs) are publicly available. This data shows the trend of the annual South African government budget information suggesting that total expenditure on LTSM by PDEs will likely increase in the future. When considering the Department of Education’s (DBE) budget and expenditure on LTSM, it is much less clear how much money was spent on LTSM.
In order to make claims about OER and their cost-savings in the South African education system, national and provincial government budgets will need to be disaggregated more meaningfully and be made more readily available for in-depth investigation of budgetary allocations.
