Gaye Davis
KEY recommendations of a major report, proposing sweeping changes to South Africa’s unequal schooling system, will be implemented next year, ushering in a new deal for education.
Education Minister Professor Sibusiso Bengu was handed the report of the Review Committee on School Organisation, Governance and Funding on Thursday. His major challenge now will be dealing with conflicting interpretations of the interim Constitution, which has a clause stating that powers and functions of school governing bodies may not be altered before bona fide negotiations with them have taken place.
In terms of the report, powers of governing bodies of 90 percent of the country’s schools will be significantly increased, while those of Model C schools will be somewhat reduced.
Model C governing bodies will be able to select, but not appoint, teachers, although provincial education departments will have to give reasons for rejecting a school’s chosen appointee. They will also lose the right to control their admissions policy and to charge compulsory school fees.
Bengu’s first move is expected to be to declare all but private schools to be public schools. Schools will then be informed about the new framework and governing bodies’ powers. If governing bodies accept the new deal, negotiations in terms of the constitution will be deemed to have taken place. Where they refuse, however, negotiations must take place.
A major issue will be whether government must negotiate with individual school governing bodies or whether they can be dealt with as a group. Legal opinion is divided on this.
A committee source said it was incorrect to assume that funding to traditionally white schools could be slashed by more than half, as reported at the weekend. “All that Model C schools get from the state is teachers’ salaries. Cutting that funding by half would mean cutting staff by half, which is out of the question,” the source said.
A sliding scale of school fees is proposed. Parents would declare their annual household income and be charged accordingly. It would be up to provinces to decide the figures but, by way of illustration, the report suggests that a family earning up to R12 000 pay no fees; one with an income of between R12 000 and R24 000 pay R100 for the first child, R75 for the second and R50 for the third; while a family earning more than R48 000 would pay R1 000, R750 and R500 respectively.
Provincial education budgets will be split into five allocations to be dealt out on the basis of an “index of needs”. The biggest allocation will be salaries, and the report recommends this be dealt with on the basis of a pupil:teacher ratio of 40:1.
This means a school with 400 children will receive salaries to pay for 10 teachers. It also means schools with better-qualified teachers will still be getting more money than others.
To address the massive disparities in teachers’ salaries, it is suggested factors other than qualifications be taken into account in determining what a teacher earns. A teacher functioning as a head of department or handling a class of 100 children would thus be compensated for these duties.
Government will have to negotiate with teacher unions over this.
Another budget allocation will be an education redress fund, which will channel funds for repairing derelict or damaged schools and improving the quality of education. Funds will be allocated on the basis of criteria agreed by stakeholders represented on the provincial education councils that are being set up.