KwaZulu-Natal’s education department on Friday repeated its warning to schools that had not submitted audited financial statements that they will lose their Section 21 status.
Departmental spokesperson Christi Naude said: ”Parents need to know that even if a school loses its section 21 status, it does not mean that those schools that are no-fee schools will lose their no-fee status.”
Naude’s statement follows the ultimatum last week by KwaZulu-Natal superintendent general of education Dr Cassius Lubisi that 594 no-fee schools had until August 15 to submit their audited annual financial statements or be stripped of their Section 21 status.
Section 21 schools manage their own financial status and have the money deposited into their bank accounts by the education department. Non-Section 21 schools have their financial affairs managed directly by the department.
Lubisi said last Friday that there were 980 Section 21 schools that had not submitted audited annual financial statement. For a school to be classified as a Section 21 school it has to provide the department with proof that it has the capacity to manage its affairs.
The school governing bodies of the 594 no-fee schools have also been asked to advance reasons why their Section 21 functions relating to financial management should not be withdrawn.
More than half the province’s schools are Section 21 schools, meaning that a third of them had not submitted annual financial statements to the department.
Last year the department announced that 1 346 schools in the province would qualify for the no-fee status. These schools — the poorest 20% of schools in the province — were to be allocated an average annual subsidy of R565 per child.
Naude said she was concerned that some media reports had indicated that schools would lose their no-fee status.
”This is not true. The no-fee status of schools is not the issue here. The issue is the Section 21 status and those schools showing how they have managed their affairs. That is why we ask for the audited financial statements,” she said. – Sapa