Prevent ‘state capture’ of our schools
THE NATIONAL executive council of the South African Teachers’ Union met on October 31 and November 1 to deliberate on a wide variety of concerns. The following matter raised the most serious comment.
School capture by the state. The recently proposed amendments to the South African Schools Act and the Employment of Educators Act take public education back to the pre-1994 era. That is to say, to a system of state schooling in which each school is an extension of the political dispensation of the day. What this means is that schools will have no choice but to toe a specific political line and the noble notion of the school as a democratic institution will come to nothing. These amendments will in no way improve the quality of education and are without doubt, designed to “capture” every school for the sole purpose of advantaging the state.
The excuse offered for the changes is that not all governing bodies can fulfil their duties, which prompts the question: What has the government been doing for the past 20 or more years?
It is also important to note that the proposed amendments run counter to the Education White Paper and the National Development Plan. Both policy documents require school communities to enjoy the highest degree of autonomy.
This explicit move to “school capture” is a step backwards – one that, over the long term, will push an already ailing system closer to the edge of total dysfunction. It places schools in the hands of redeployed cadres who have absolutely no sense of the education needs of either schools or their communities. The aspect that engenders the greatest worry is the plan to take the appointment of promotion posts in schools out of the hands of the school governing bodies and place it instead in the hands of officials described above. To date, it was a generally accepted principle that parents and schools were in the best position to objectively decide which principal, deputy principal and head of department most satisfactorily fulfilled the school’s curriculum.
Other aspects that suggest “school capture” are the fact that schools can be forced to make use of centralised procurement systems and that education authorities can simply use school facilities without the school being able to claim remuneration for maintenance for possible breakages.
Furthermore, the prescript that the purchase of just about any article at all is subject to departmental approval is clear proof that the department wants to exercise control over schools’ purse strings, depriving school management of the ability to secure the best prices.
The union is already in the process of taking hands with other education unions and partners to fight this draconian attempt to capture schools.
The union calls on every responsible citizen to reject this school capture which totally contradicts the requirements of quality education and makes a mockery of democratic education.