Its a debacle — thats the judgement of the countrys largest teachers union on the governments attempt to make schooling more affordable by introducing no-fee schools next year.
The South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) said that changes to the school fee system heralded in this years Education Laws Amendment Bill — and which the Department of Education announced would be implemented next year — are turning into a debacle. There are three stumbling blocks, the union says:
Minister of Education Naledi Pandor does not, as yet, have the power to declare which schools will be barred from charging fees. The department missed the September 30 deadline, meaning the Bill did not pass through Parliament and is not yet law.
The re-ranking [by provinces] of schools to produce a national poverty ranking is going badly — the basic data is not appropriate to the task.
Provincial budgets for next year indicate that each province is going its own way — some are planning for no-fee schools, others are not. Ironically, the poorest province — Eastern Cape — will not be able to afford any no-fee schools.
Pandors power to declare which will be no-fee schools is central to the Bills aim of establishing a national poverty ranking to eliminate massive provincial disparities. Sadtu said that until she is vested with this authority, decisions on whether fees were charged are purely voluntary — depending on the level of provincial funding and the decisions of individual school governing bodies.
To re-rank schools, the provinces are using Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) data on socio-economic conditions in different regions. But some regions as defined by Stats SA are too large to rank the economic status of individual schools adequately, resulting in anomalies.
For example, in Gauteng, Stats SA lumps Sandton and Alexandra together. When the income status of these two areas is averaged, no schools from poverty-stricken Alexandra are eligible for no-fee status.
Other lobby and union groupings share Sadtus reservations. The National Professional Teachers Organisation of South Africa (Naptosa), Wits Universitys Centre for Applied Legal Studies (Cals) and the Education Rights Project (ERP) all view the Bills provisions on fees as unworkable.
Its a complete farce, said the ERPs Salim Vally, a researcher in Wits Universitys Education Policy Unit. One has to expose the disingenuous way in which the education department bandies about statements concerning free education when its own mechanisms cannot achieve this.
Responding to questions, the department did not deny factual points in Sadtus critique. However, it did not concede that there would be any particular problems next year.
Director General Duncan Hindle agreed there has been a delay in passing the Bill, and that interim arrangements for next year mean provinces will decide which will be no-fee schools.
But he said Minister of Finance Trevor Manuels Medium-Term Budget Policy statement of October 25 annnounced an additional R20-billion for education, health and social development over the next three years.
Of course, Hindle said, action in terms of the policy is dependent on provincial treasuries making funding available in the manner anticipated in the budget speech.
The Department of Education will work with provincial departments to strengthen implementation in this area. Increased funding will apply to all provinces, including the Eastern Cape.
He denied that Sandton and Alexandra were included in the same community, but confirmed that Stats SA data was being used to arrive at poverty rankings.
Vally and other educationists maintain that loopholes remain. The Bill provides for a minimum adequacy benchmark of R527 per learner — if a province funds a school below that benchmark, the school regains the right to charge fees.
The implication is that some of the countrys poorest communities could once again lose out, as many have been doing because of illegal misapplications of the fee-exemption policy.
Its not a workable system, said Faranaaz Veriava of the Education Law Project at Cals. Free education is the only system that will work.