For years without much fanfare the National Education Department has quietly shifted many of its fiscal duties onto School Governing Bodies (SGB’s). At the same time the Department disempowers SGB’s by limiting its ability to collect fees, disciplining kids choosing the Principal and teachers and soon the department will decide who can attend what school.
According to the SGB Foundation, total or partial exemption from the requirement to pay school fees is provided for in law. The SGB in truth has little option but to grant exemptions to those who apply.
In truth any person can apply at any school and later demand free education and the school is required to, inform the parent of “right to apply” for exemption and assist in completing the forms.
As a result, governing bodies have little choice but to increase fees on paying parents to provide for nonpayers and when the fiscal tipping point is reached, the SGB will increase the pupil, teacher ratio.
With free university studies on the table, the national education department will struggle to sustain its fiscal duty and will in due course ruin fee paying government schools through contradictory legislation.
The latest from Pretoria submits that those who mislead schools with addresses will be imprisoned.
With the mine-field of legal and other requirements, SGB’s require expertise and this demand will increase the gap between rich and poor school. In due time, only free government and private schools will endure as the education prospects of the struggling middle class will be restricted. Those who can afford a better education for their kids are punished by sheer jealousy and communist driven drivel.
In the words of the wise, nothing can stop the person with the correct attitude from achieving their goals and little can stop the person with a questionable agenda from sowing discord.
Those liable for generating education policies must think carefully before forsaking workable systems with ideologically drivel without understanding the long term impact in tangible terms.
Have we learnt nothing from the OBE debacle?
Cllr Yagyah Adams
Cape Muslim Congress