When we initially estblished the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union, it was to fight against the apartheid regime. That does not mean that we have now stopped fighting. We will continue to fight, even with the present Gauteng department of education (GDE) if it acts unjustly.
Let us take a closer look at some recent issues that I consider unjust.
Firstly, the GDE, in its drive for self-management of schools, encouraged schools to apply for and take on Section 21 powers. But before a school was to be given these powers, it was the task of the GDE to ensure that the school had the capability, the expertise, the support and so on. Did the GDE do its job?
Secondly, a fixed budget of R250 per learner was set aside to cover learning material for the new Revised National Curriculum Statement. However, many schools did not receive this promised additional funding! The cost for these new textbooks will therefore now have to be borne by parents.
Thirdly, there is the very important issue of the school governing bodies (SGBs) being allowed to decide where they buy supplies such as textbooks and stationery for their own schools.
In 2001, the GDE was in charge of ensuring that schools ordered and monitored their purchases. Special suppliers were nominated, but the whole thing collapsed because of inefficiency. After this, SGBs could purchase from whom they desired. Schools were allowed to buy from any supplier, and we had no problems with delivery.
This went very well, until we recently had the Gauteng textbook debacle, courtesy of some mysterious company called EduSolutions. This company was given a contract by the GDE and went about supplying things such as unordered books and charts to public schools, with each school receiving more than R40 000-worth of goods.
I want to know, how much was the contract worth? For the sake of transparency and accountability, the names of the shareholders of EduSolutions must be published.
One big problem I have with this centralised approach is that, as any economic-minded person knows, purchasing from big stores will be less costly than buying from a spaza shop. This money given to EduSolutions could have been used by schools to purchase much- needed new textbooks for themselves. If the GDE centralised things in this way because some schools abused the system, it must take those errant schools to task and not penalise all of us.
Concerned educator
Lenasia, Gauteng