Schooling is going ahead in fits and starts as provincial mismanagement makes itself felt in the classroom. Reports and photos by Julia Grey
Incompetence in the Eastern Cape Province Education Department (Ecped) is taking its toll on the smooth running of many of its schools.
Ntlalo-Ntle Senior Secondary in Steynsburg is just one school facing the burdens that poor administration is creating. This is the third year it is operating without a principal. Acting principal Thozama Makubalo explains, ”The principal was chased away by the students because she was accused of misusing funds. The case was never heard, and there was no proof. But the principal is still on sick leave.”
Ecped representative Phamphama Mfenyana says the department’s failure to carry out school audits (required by law), which are meant to ensure that all school funds are accounted for, has resulted in this erosion of trust. And this is impacting on other schools, too: earlier this year, Sinikiwe High in Mdantsane closed for weeks because of similar action taken by the pupils for alleged corruption at the school.
Another impediment to teaching has been the delay of outcomes-based education (OBE) training for educators who are meant to implement Curriculum 2005 this year. No training was held at all until near the end of the first term, leaving ”nothing for teachers to work with,” says Makubalo. Worse still, now that workshops are finally under way, ”10 [out of 19] teachers have been away for a week at an OBE workshop in Cradock. It’s sad,” Makubalo adds, ”because the teachers had to hike a lift because the school doesn’t have money [for transport]. They didn’t even know where they’d be staying because no arrangements had been made for them.”
Meantime, hundreds of learners – including those facing the countdown to matric – spent the week without teachers.
Mfenyana blames some of the disarray on the review of Curriculum 2005 last year. But he agrees, ”This should not happen again because it disempowers the teachers who are only being trained in the year that they must implement [OBE].”
An additional problem is the lack of resources at Ntalo-Ntle, and many schools like it. Textbooks have arrived in dribs and drabs, and ”We have been making requisitions for furniture and things for the lab since 1997, but we’ve received no response at all,” says Makubalo.
A short term solution has been to borrow resources from schools in Cradock, but says Makubalo, ”It is very strenuous. We have to use taxis and pay for them ourselves.”
— The Teacher/Mail & Guardian, Johannesburg, April 2001.