For the first time in many years, South African schools are not simply managing budgets — they are managing pressure from every direction. We recently presented a webinar where we stated that the role of the SGB should shift from “approving the budget” to “interrogating strategy”. To move from a mindset of managing the budget to designing financial resilience. Public schools, especially feepaying schools, find themselves squeezed between rising costs, constrained households, declining state support and growing expectations. No-fee schools are completely dependent on state funding, which was not paid on the statutory date of 15 May in 7 of the 9 provinces.

Education remains the largest area of government expenditure, yet the reality on the ground tells a more complex story…