Charges of misconduct could be brought against 23 Eastern Cape school principals for inflating their pupil numbers, a Department of Education spokesperson said on Wednesday.
”This has been an ongoing problem in our province,” said Loyiso Pulumani. ”What happens is that at the beginning of every year, we get the numbers of pupils in schools from the principals. We then verify them ourselves.”
This year, 23 high-school and primary-school principals were found to have inflated the number of pupils at their schools by between 10% and 42%.
”It is a well-known fact that the department makes allocation of funding and teachers according to the number of pupils at a school.
”So when schools lie about their figures, and we send learning material for that figure, it is a waste of resources as these would have been used somewhere else.”
The principals of schools with more pupils are also paid more, Pulumani said.
He said the practice of inflating figures is more prevalent in remote areas where, in the absence of a verification process, principals have been able to get away with it for a long time.
Pulumani said a number of principals were found to have inflated their numbers by less than 10%, but will not face disciplinary action.
”This is because you find that indeed the school had a bigger number of pupils at the beginning of the year, but that [its enrolment] decreased due to some dropping out.” — Sapa