INLSA
Leanne Jansen
leanne.jansen@inl.co.za
TWO changes to the South African Schools Act, and another in the pipeline, will wrest power away from parents in schools and hand ultimate control to the Basic Education Department.
The changes are an attack on the rights of school governing bodies and part of a larger concerted drive to hamstring the organisations.
This is how the Governing Body Foundation, a national association representing 650 schools, has characterised the department’s controversial new regulation restricting the remuneration of staff at former Model C schools.
Not only was the government, through the regulation gazetted on December 15, moving to ban bonuses being paid to principals and teachers, it was in effect eroding the rights of parents to influence the quality of education their children received, the foundation’s CEO, Tim Gordon, said yesterday.
Teacher unions in KwaZulu- Natal were split in their reaction to the move, while the department was sticking to its guns, saying it would not allow the “commodification” of quality education, nor was it seeking to undermine the importance of the role parents played in schools.
The changes to the Schools Act would also limit the overtime teachers may work.
DA education spokesman Tom Stokes lambasted the department for “pandering” to the demands of the SA Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu). He warned that hiring part-time coaches to oversee extra or after-hours activities would cost more than the overtime rates being paid to teachers.
The department believed the bonuses were the cause of “exorbitant” school fees.
Spokesman Panyaza Lesufi said that in some instances teachers postponed duties until after hours so they could claim overtime, whereas the tasks could be completed during normal hours.
Furore
The furore follows a Sunday Times report that warned that the new regulation could lead to an exodus of public school teachers to private schools. Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said that fees at former model C schools were “galloping” because of the bonuses paid to principals.
However, Gordon warned that curtailing the powers of governing bodies could also lead to time, skills and funding being withdrawn by parents who felt their partnership with the government was skewed against them.
“If you reduce the meaningfulness of parents’ input, if they feel they are not getting a fair return, they will withdraw from volunteering their time and skills, reducing the quality you can offer.
“They will withdraw their money, so there’ll be fewer teaching resources and fewer opportunities to provide free education. And those who can afford it will remove their children from (public) schools (and send them to private schools).”
Gordon said that in addition to the latest regulation, the possibility that governing bodies could no longer have their preferred candidates appointed as principals and a Joburg High Court ruling that a school governing body did not have the unqualified power to determine a public school’s admission policy were “clear indicators” of the government’s efforts to curb the rights and influence of school governing bodies.
He insisted that the bonuses, which could reach R40 000, were not the cause of spiralling school fees.
A survey of schools represented by the foundation found that these payments constituted, on average, 3 percent of their budgets.
Gordon said principals managing large staff complements and teachers who regularly did weekend, holiday or evening work deserved reward.
Invalid
He said the department’s rationale that it was seeking to curb rising school fees was invalid.
“Parents who pay fees do so voluntarily. If you can’t afford it, you’re entitled to a total or partial exemption. So, ironically, the higher the fees, the less people pay.”
The department said it would permit the payment of bonuses if it felt such applications were justified, but Sadtu and the KZN Parents Association said a ban on bonuses was welcome.
Sadtu provincial secretary Mbuyiseni Mathonsi said it was about time teachers at former Model C schools were exposed to the “real” education system.
He added, however, that the department could not justify low wages paid to teachers, and should seek to provide a substitute for bonus payments at all schools.
Parents association chairman Sayed Rajak said school fees had been a “gatekeeper” for too long.
Banning bonus payments would “level the playing field”.
Renuka Vithal, deputy vice-chancellor of teaching at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, said she supported performance-related awards, but called for a regulatory framework to be developed.
Anthony Pierce, CEO of the National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of SA, was taken aback by the new regulation being announced while roleplayers were on holiday.
“There are much more serious and crucial things we should be spending our time on… school fees go into more than paying bonuses,” he said.
Lesufi denied the department was attempting to curtail the rights of governing bodies, saying that every law enacted was influenced by parents.
