(Archive photo: Pixabay)
The Solidarity Teacher Network notes with concern the Gauteng MEC for education, Lebogang Maile,’s possible intention to have the decentralization of schools’ administrative and financial functions reviewed.
This discussion follows after some schools’ power and water supply was cut off and the department now believes that schools and governing bodies cannot fulfill their responsibilities.
For the Solidarity Teacher Network, this does not look like an attempt to support schools, but rather an attempt to gain greater control over schools’ finances and powers.
According to Johan Botha, head of Solidarity’s Teacher Network, the irony of Maile’s intention is striking.
Botha points out how some schools’ power supply was recently cut off because the Gauteng education department itself failed to pay attention to certain administrative and financial obligations – including inheritance tax – in time.
In many of the schools, this did not happen because governing bodies failed to fulfill their duties. On the contrary, the department’s negligence forced schools to put emergency measures in place while learners and teachers had to bear the consequences.
Botha says it is unacceptable that the department is now trying to place the blame on governing bodies.
“The department cannot even get its own administrative house in order, but now it is hinted that schools’ powers should be further curtailed. This raises serious suspicion and concern about the real motive behind these proposals.
“Governing bodies and school managements keep the system running under tremendous pressure. When problems arise, it is often precisely these structures that step in, find solutions and apply crisis management.
“Now it seems as if the department wants to water down the role of governing bodies rather than strengthen them,” says Botha.
Solidarity warns that centralization does not necessarily mean better management.
Marius Botha, an education consultant who now works with Solidarity’s Teacher Network, says the opposite is true. According to him, South African schools often function successfully precisely because governing bodies and communities have a vested interest in their schools and can respond quickly to problems.
“So when decisions are taken further away from schools and communities, schools are often managed less efficiently. More central control does not automatically mean better management; sometimes it simply means more bureaucracy and less accountability,” he says.
The Solidarity Teacher Network believes that the department should instead focus on its own responsibilities and address shortcomings before it attempts to take over control of schools.