Collaboration schools open doors to donors
THE provincial education department’s proposed provisions for collaboration schools do not provide measures to exclude unwarranted influence by private donors, says advocacy group Equal Education (EE).
It criticised the Western Cape Education Department’s (WCED) plans on the model, which has been drafted as part of the Provincial School Education Amendment Bill.
EE said a group of donors, including the DG Murray Trust, Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, Zenex Foundation, Millennium Trust, First Rand Empowerment, ELMA Philanthropies, Omidyar Network and ARK have backed the plans to introduce collaboration schools.
“Modelled on academies in the UK and charter schools in the US, this school model involves the private takeover of previously democratically elected school governing bodies.
“The empowering legislation currently being considered by the Western Cape legislature does not exclude private actors from getting involved in the project and introduces no measures to prevent the undue influence of ideological convictions in these schools,” EE said.
Education MEC Debbie Schäfer’s spokesperson, Jessica Shelver, confirmed the donors yesterday, but denied that schools would be influenced. “Our policy is clear: schools must be run on a non-profit basis. The schools will remain public schools.”
Earlier this month, the SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) expressed concern that discussions about the proposal on collaboration schools with the WCED have broken down. Sadtu has described the plan as a way to “privatise schools”.
The union’s provincial secretary, Jonavon Rustin, said yesterday that new provisions in the draft bill would allow donors seats on school governing bodies, which would mean they had power in influencing school language policies, admission policies and disciplinary methods.
“There would be no problem if money and expertise were donated, but the partners will have influence on decision making, which is a bad idea,” he said.
The proposed amendments are expected to be discussed between Schäfer and Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga soon.