Access to a good education for all remains a crucial issue on the political agenda. Karen MacGregor looks at the battles that lie ahead
A bold new approach to financing and organising South African schools is likely to be proposed by the government’s new review committee on school funding and
The committee’s crucial task is to help decide the fate of the country’s nearly 25 000 schools – two-thirds of which are state-aided, including the 2 000 formerly white ”Model C” schools with which educators and others are obsessed.
The committee is only due to report in three months, but early indications are that it may propose scrapping Model C schools in name if not in substance, the introduction of a more equitable system of funding and the creation of centres of educational excellence in townships to ease the flood of black pupils to suburban schools.
An estimated 70 000 more African children entered the formerly white school system this year, leaving some schools in townships like Soweto with empty places.
The idea is to pump lots of money and effort into a few township schools rather than spread money thinly and ineffectively across the entire system. There is growing concern that the flow of black pupils to suburban schools will drain townships of their skilled middle classes, diminishing their potential for development.
The way members of the Committee to Review School Organisation, Governance and Funding are thinking began to emerge at a conference hosted by the Education Policy Units of the Universities of Natal and the Witwatersrand, and the Department of Education, in Durban recently.
The big battles will be over the continuation of the Model C type state-aided schools — which both the Congress of South African Students and the South African Democratic Teachers Union want scrapped.
Many of these issues are already prescribed in the education White Paper and the Interim Constitution, but the committee has been told by Education Minister Sibusiso Bengu that it can make recommendations that go beyond both, said committee chairman and University of Witwatersrand education professor Peter Hunter.
Deputy Education Minister Renier Schoeman says the opposite: his National Party will try to ensure that constitutional clauses protecting minority rights remain firmly in place.
Although the state provides the bulk of the money for schooling in South Africa, only a third of all schools are owned and fully financed by the state, University of Natal Education Policy Unit director John Pampallis pointed out. The remaining two thirds have varying degrees of state
Although there is a powerful lobby against state-aided schools, the size of the sector and limited resources of the state are likely to result in a compromise in which some form of state-aided school is allowed, funding is made more equitable and the powers of governing bodies are
This would mean formerly white schools would no longer be able to charge compulsory fees or refuse admission on the basis of race, income or other exclusionary factors.
The Education White Paper suggests a single structure of governance for all schools, simplifying the current variety of forms of governance and ownership. Governing bodies will comprise parent and teacher representatives, as well as pupils in secondary school to bring democratic governance to schools.
”This policy is the product of our history and the democratic struggles of our people,” said Pampallis ”As far as I have been able to ascertain, South Africa is unique in the world in having such a policy.”
The most controversial aspect of governing bodies will be their powers and pupil representation. The power of governors is likely to end up somewhere between the high level autonomy in Model C schools and the advisory status of structures in most other schools.
There will be strong resistance to the idea, supported by the National Party, that governing bodies at schools where parents make large financial contributions should be given greater powers and responsibilities.
”We need to ensure that the democratic rights of citizens to control the institutions which affect their lives are not tied to their ability to pay,” said Blade Nzimande, ANC MP and chair of the Parliamentary Select Committee on
Sadtu agrees with pupil representation in principle, but most of its members will certainly not want pupils getting involved in the hiring, firing and disciplining of teachers. The role of pupils on governing bodies is thus likely to be limited.
Certainly the Review Committee is likely to recommend differential financing of schools, so that those most in need get the most money. ”We have to promote the allocation of more resources to the poorer areas,” said Dr Nzimande. ”This is a non-negotiable starting point in the transformation process.”
Under the current funding system schools with the best qualified teachers — generally white schools — get far more money than schools with poorly qualified teachers.
A possible new system would base funding on pupil numbers, granting schools with similar numbers of pupils similar allocations, encouraging schools to take in more pupils.
Schools with well qualified teachers would have to cut their staff numbers or raise funds privately, while schools with less qualified teachers could employ more teachers and have smaller classes — offsetting to a degree the effects of their lack of qualifications.
ANC policy appears to oppose the right of schools to charge fees for the first 10 years of compulsory education — a policy which some educationists argue would unwittingly lead to a dual system of schooling.
Affluent parents would start to withdraw their children from state financed schools and place them in private schools, resulting in a dual system with a large, under- funded and poor quality state sector and a small, well resourced private school sector. Virtually all decision makers in South Africa would place their children in the private sector and would thus not have a direct stake in state schools, leading to the neglect of the state sector.
It has been suggested by some that in the long term fees should be replaced by means-related taxes, which would enable schools to raise funds but would not exclude poor students from schools because they could not pay fees. There would be greater local level control over schooling based on school zones encompassing different race and social groups.
Since education affects all, it is likely to be a battle hard fought by parties in the Government of National Unity. But while unity was necessary during transition, Nzimande warned, ”we must be careful that unity is not based on a compromise between apartheid and democracy”.