The Eastern Cape finally seems to have come up with measures to improve education delivery. Julia Grey reports
The steep learning curve that the Eastern Cape Department of Education has been struggling along may at last be leading to some stability, as weaknesses in the system are tackled in earnest.
Efforts to weed out corruption are paying off. Three education department officials and a businesswoman from Mount Frere appeared in court last month on charges of fraud amounting to R1,4-million. According to education department representative Phamphama Mfenyana, a further four officials have also been arrested on charges of fraud. It is not known when the investigations will be completed.
A key lesson learnt from the prevalence of corruption is accountability. Managers are due to be issued with performance contracts which will clearly set out their areas of responsibility and they will be required to produce weekly reports to account for expenditure. Monthly reports will then be compiled and sent to the provincial treasury for scrutiny, a measure meant to identify irregularities timeously.
Weaknesses in the area of finance are also being addressed, with key positions such as chief finance officer due to be filled soon.
This will hopefully put an end to the situation where legitimate educators go unpaid while individuals not in the employ of the education department receive monthly salaries. An example is that of AmaRharhabe Queen Noloyiso Sandile, who has been paid about R78 000 a year by the education department since 1989, even though she has never worked for them. The payments were stopped in May this year.
Some educators, on the other hand, are threatening court action if money owed to them by the department is not paid soon.
Add to these steps the major restructuring of the regional and district system, and many are hopeful that delivery will improve. The current divisions of five regions and 41 districts are to be reorganised into either 22 or 23 districts. This effort at decentralisation, says Mfenyana, should cut out a lot of the chaos that currently reigns.
The Eastern Cape was shown in the 2000 national School Register of Needs survey as lagging behind other provinces in addressing infrastructure backlogs and providing resources like electricity to schools. A lot is riding on these steps to stop the rot and turn education around.
– The Teacher/M&Media, Johannesburg, August 2001.