Schools alliance calls for probe of five education departments

THE National Alliance of Independent Schools Associations has asked the public protector to investigate maladministration by five provincial education departments which “deliberately or negligently” reduced subsidies to independent schools.

KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Limpopo, North West and Mpumalanga are said to be failing to fulfil their obligations by paying incorrect subsidy amounts, arbitrarily reducing the amounts or by paying late. This is threatening the financial sustainability of about 630 schools with 130,000 pupils.

Jane Hofmeyr, executive director of the Independent Schools Association of Southern Africa, said yesterday the request to Public Protector Thuli Madonsela for a probe came after years of failure to comply with national norms and standards for subsidies.

Nonprofit independent schools are eligible for a state subsidy of 15%-60% of the average cost of a public school pupil to a province, with the subsidy graded against the fees levied on parents.

A pupil in a public school costs the state R11,000-R12,000 a year. Independent schools charging annual fees two-and-a-half times this average do not qualify for subsidies, while low-fee schools could have up to half of their budgets funded by the government.

Independent schools educate 504,395 pupils. This intake has doubled since 2000 while public schools are being closed.

Ms Hofmeyr told a media briefing that KwaZulu-Natal was the “delinquent province”, cutting

subsidies since 2008 and deliberately not allocating adequate amounts in its annual budgets.

Eastern Cape had “not paid the correct amounts since 2004” and qualifying schools were receiving 30%-35% of the subsidy.

Ms Hofmeyr said Mpumalanga had “arbitrarily” reduced subsidies by 50%, and Limpopo would be making a “late” payment of about 60%.

North West had not provided schools with estimates of the amount they would receive for four years, she said.

Education expert Graeme Bloch said yesterday while independent schools were important “simply because they are part of the school system”, the small proportion of pupils they represented and the problems in the far larger public sector spoke of the need for a focus on state schools. But the government should meet its obligations to all elements of the education system, and if it did not want to assist independent schools, it should not have legislation that requires it, he said.

The Independent Schools Association of Southern Africa is the largest member of the National Alliance of Independent Schools Associations.

The alliance has filed papers against the KwaZulu-Natal government at the Constitutional Court after the Durban High Court ruled against their bid to get the subsidies paid. The matter will be heard next month.

The KwaZulu-Natal education department referred queries to the Department of Basic Education, which had not commented at the time of going to press.