The heads of education committee (Hedcom) moved on Monday to quash ”misleading reports” on the draft Education Laws Amendment Bill, gazetted for comment by Education Minister Naledi Pandor last week.
The idea that school governing bodies (SGBs) may be fined, as alleged by some media and commentators, is ludicrous and nowhere to be found in the draft legislation, Hedcom said in a statement.
Provincial education ministers are clearly identified as being ultimately responsible for correcting any under-performance, it said.
The Bill makes no provision for SGBs to become involved in the professional management of educators, although it does provide for SGBs to adhere to departmental decisions and not frustrate these, especially where it concerns under-performance of a principal or educator.
It is intended to encourage parents, through their SGBs, to take a more active interest in the quality of education and performance of the school.
Hedcom urged interested parties to read the actual text of the legislation, and not rely on misleading reports about what it contains.
The Independent Democrats (ID) on Sunday described the alleged move by the education department to force school governing bodies to take responsibility for poor performance as ”deplorable”.
”The ID finds it deplorable that the education department wants to shift responsibility for learner performance onto the shoulders of school governing bodies,” said the party’s education spokesperson, Lance Greyling. ”Ultimately the buck stops with the education department and the minister and she should do her job.”
The draft Bill is gazetted and published on the department’s website, and comments should be received by May 29.
Surprise visit
Meanwhile, Pandor paid her first surprise visit to a Western Cape school during a walkabout of schools in the Khayelitsha area on Monday.
Her spokesperson Lunga Ngqengelele said the minister paid a surprise visit to Kwamfundo Senior Secondary School as part of her campaign to gain ”first-hand information” about how schools are managing.
Pandor was ”impressed” with how well the school is functioning, Ngqengelele said.
She also paid a planned visit to Qhayiya Secondary School to congratulate it on its rise from a 34% matric pass rate in 2005 to 94% in 2006.
Ngqengelele said Pandor feels it is as important to praise performing schools when they achieve well as it is to investigate problems at non-performing schools.
Pandor met Qhayiya’s principal, Sabelo Mali, and spoke to pupils to encourage them to ”continue working hard” and to instil a culture of reading and studying at Qhayiya.
The school asked the minister to provide more training for maths and science teachers and to get representatives of further education and training (FET) colleges to visit township high schools and inform pupils about post-matric opportunities.
Ngqengelele said surprise visits are very useful to the department because it makes it realise the information it is getting might ”not [be] correlating with information on the ground”.
”For example, the department had embarked on a massive marketing strategy for FET colleges but realised it needed to promote these even more, particularly in township schools,” said Ngqengelele. — Sapa