National Association of SchooI Governing Bodies( NASGB) Presentation to Parliamentary Ad Hoc Committee on Education (June 2004)
Introduction
The NASGB welcomes the opportunity to exercise our democratic right, at least as we celebrate a decade of democracy. Just before I make comments on content based issues, I want to ask the house a question which does not necessarily need answers right now, rather something to digest and relish as we engage in discussion to improve on the achievements thus far: Where are civil society movements? What does our conscience tell us when the processes of educational transformation ride comfortably over the carcasses of potential democratic engagements?
It is worth commending the Department of Education for its many successes since 1994, among which include and not limited to, restructuring of the administration of education, putting in place progressive policy and plans, curriculum review and its 'timely' introduction, programmes for teacher development, deracialising schools, recognizing skills needs and the restructuring of the FET band, better management systems of schools and most importantly, the replacement of autocratic schools committees with the democratically elected School Governing Bodies, recognition of the effects and impact of HIV/Aids, SANLI and lately, the expansion of PSNP.
The presentation pays special attention to the Right to Basic Education in South Africa as entrenched in international law of which South Africa is a signatory. These include UDHR (1948), CSE and cultural Right (1998), CRC (1998), the Dakar Declaration. The key purpose of entrenching these rights is to secure the development of the human personality and to promote respect for human rights. And this is essential for other socio-political and political rights and civil liberties. This right can be traced back to the 1955 Freedom Charter to the Constitutional obligations. According to the white Paper on education and Training (DoE, 1995:20):
The Government is committed to the goal of providing access to general education for all children from reception year up to Grade 9, funded by the state at an acceptable level of quality, and to achieve this goal in the shortest time possible. This goal is often referred to as the provision of 'ten years free and compulsory general education for all’.
Whilst school has become compulsory, but gaps with regards to circumstances under which education takes place differ significantly.
Access to quality education in South Africa is inextricably linked to the socioeconomic status of those wishing to access education. Despite reforms towards a non-racial society in all spheres of life, the socio-economic status of the majority of people has remained impoverished and almost invariably these people are black and women. Arguably, for many at the lower end of the socio-economic scale, the situation is seriously bad. According to the Bureau for Market Research, 2002, the annual personal income per head of whites in SA is expected to be R86 884 by 2005 compared with R11 862 for blacks. These figures are influenced by the number of economically inactive, elderly and children in the group, as well as unemployment, training levels and population growth.
We believe that the central question on developments in public education since 1994 is, to what extent has socio-economic status been de-linked from access to quality education for the majority of South Africans? By implication is the access to quality education still largely dependent on the socio-economic status of the individual families and communities. Discrimination and exclusion on these grounds continue. The existence of policy framework on issues of school fee does not seem to take hold against school fee crisis as harassment against the working class of the society continue to suffer, some parents are even loosing their hard earned property, as is the case in the media recently whose property was attached because she could not pay the six hundred and something rand she owed for her child's school fee.
The school fee crisis is not only a challenge of parents who send their children in affluent communities, even those in rural poor communities where poverty and unemployment rule supreme are experiencing hardships. Many children have been forced or pushed out of school due to failure to pay school fees.
The NASGB is aware of the good intentions of the Report on the Financing, Resourcing and Cost of Education and the subsequent 'Plan for Action:' outlined by the Minister in June 2003. However, experience has taught us that intentions do not often translate into good practice. Nothing has happened so far and schools continue to abuse and flout policies. Poor parents are forced to pay school fees and uniforms, in certain instances uniforms are even more expensive an income of the parents. There have been comments about fashionable school uniforms that play a negative identity and discriminatory role, with repeated calls for the standardization of uniforms
The imposition of the school-fees system for supplementing the funding of schools through the School-Governing Bodies structure and the concomitant oppressive and exclusionary effects on the poor is a widespread crisis which would continue to undermine government's education financing efforts.
According to our democratic and constitutional framework, human rights and legislation dictate that no learner can be excluded from a school for reasons of affordability. However, there are various ways of "legal" exclusion; some alluded to in the report. A system of exempting poor learners from school-fees is also meant to be in place according to an income sliding scale formula. According to this formula parents of learners who earn less than ten times the annual school-fees are completely exempted from paying school-fees. Theoretically then, according to this policy an unlikely and untenable situation could arise at most well-resourced "rich" schools, whereby the majority of learners from low-income families could freely attend these schools. The untenability of the situation lies in the fact that given the state's equity formula such a school is meant to receive the lowest category of state subsidy. Many of these schools have also employed several additional teachers in so-called SGB posts in order to maintain the education standards that they are traditionally used to. This in turn has impacted on the levels of their school-fees (huge increases). The more important question that arises is, where is the necessary financial subsidy to come from when poor learners are exempted from school-fees? The state does not have an actual subsidy system in place. Not only is it a bureaucratic nightmare, but there is simply no budget for the subsidies of poor learners attending schools that they cannot afford. If the inclusivity policy were to be implemented fully and openly, with full state support, then most of your wealthy schools in areas like Sandton could be filled by learners from neighbouring Alexandra. How long will the school in Sandton survive in its current modus-operandi that makes it attractive to learners from Alexandra in the first place? In most provinces no provision is made for subsidizing of poor learners who are unable to afford school-fees.
It is our view that only a progressive policy of taxation that favour the poor, enabling the state to access much more financial resources from the wealthy, will enable an education system of free education, the scrapping and capping of school-fees, as well as the redistribution of resources from rich to poor.
It will mean a minimum resource allocation to every school with a maximum allocation to the poorest school-communities based on objective resource requirements and criteria for quality schooling that will focus on areas such as:
Infrastructure and facilities
Content and method of Education, including the arts (music, fine art, drama etc.)
Teacher-learner ratios, numbers and qualifications
Democratic governance (locally, regionally, provincially and nationally)
Learning resources and support material/technology
Extra-mural activities as an integral part of the school curricula and education with all the necessary support in the form of resources both human and otherwise. Below are some of the harsh realities
According to the GCE Statement, it finds that Register of Needs (2000). Too many of our schools are still without water, adequate sanitation and electricity; 800/0 have no library and no computers. Indeed the SAHRC's 4th Socio economic report (2004) found that whilst the departments' policies were generally in line with the Bill of Rights some shortfalls in infrastructure remained and reported it thus:
10723 schools have a shortage of classrooms
13 204 schools are short of textbooks
10 859 school are without electricity
2 498 schools have inadequate toilet facilities
21 773 schools lacks access to library facilities and
17 762 schools lack access to recreational and sporting facilities
The expansion of ECD provisioning has proven to be a vital tool for preparing children to enter formal education. We believe that all children from birth to 6 years of age should have access to early childhood education and development of high quality. It is unfortunate that the sector is extremely under funded. Massive investment in this sector is necessary. There is dire need for the acceleration of this provision, particularly in rural communities where other sources of information and education such as TV and radios are scares resources. Currently many practitioners are paid by money generated and raised somehow. This also means that children whose parents are unable to pay such fee cannot access this elementary education.
The commitment by government that by 2015, schools will have basic essentials such as water, sanitation and electricity is commendable. The restructuring of educator salaries and career pathing and reward systems and dealing with HIV? AIDS pandemic at school level, the provision of early childhood development and FET institutions.
The White Paper 6 on Inclusive Education provides for recognition and accommodation of learners with challenges. It is a commendable move on the part of the Department. It becomes even important to ensure that the necessary facilities to support such learners are available and should be at the same standards as those for the unchallenged ones.