Fee-paying schools hit by cash crisis
• Almost 70% do not have funds to pay teachers, survey by unions shows
Almost 70% of fee-paying public schools cannot afford to pay teachers’ salaries due to the severe financial knock they have taken as a result of closures aimed at curbing the spread of the novel coronavirus.
This is according to the latest survey conducted by SA’s five major teachers’ unions this week, which has shown that SA’s schools are still struggling to ensure that they are ready with basic measures, such as having enough masks and sanitisers. Millions of pupils return to classrooms in just over a week’s time.
The survey of 7,162 schools, conducted by teachers’ unions on August 11, looked into the readiness of schools for the return of the majority of grades on August 24.
The survey by the SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu), the SA Onderwysers Unie (SAOU), the National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of SA, the Professional Educators’ Union and the National Teachers Union has been sent to the basic education department.
The reopening of public schools in August, with matric pupils and grade 7s returning to class over the past few weeks, was necessitated after teacher unions demanded that they close down until the peak of the Covid-19 infections had passed.
But the pandemic has created anxiety for parents and teachers and forced schools into economic hardship, resulting in the academic year being effectively abandoned.
According to the results of a survey of school principals, 31% required fees to be paid, out of which 79% indicated that fees were not being paid. The remaining 69% are not feepaying schools.
This in turn has affected the ability of the schools to pay for municipal rates, lights and water, and teaching material. As many as 58% of the schools said they were not able to pay admin staff, while 47% were unable to pay security staff and 68% were unable to pay teaching staff.
Chris Klopper, CEO of the SAOU, said on Thursday they were concerned about the impact of the non-payment of school fees, because schools cannot just close down like businesses when they are under financial duress.
He said they have asked the government for the allocations that are usually paid out to schools in May and November every year to be given to schools as soon as possible.
Relief schemes such as the Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme should be established for schools and the government had to “immediately” look at possible relief for schools to save them from financial ruin, said Klopper.
Mugwena Maluleke, general secretary of Sadtu, said the department would have to go into some sort of agreement with school governing bodies to ensure that no child is sent home as a result of a parent not being able to pay for school fees.
While the survey revealed high levels of anxiety for both parents and teachers, the possible impact on the preparedness of matriculants to write their national senior certificate exams later this year was also a cause for concern, Klopper said.
Of schools that have grade 12 classes, 62% were confident they will have covered the necessary content before the exams start but 25% were not sure whether they would have done so, while 14% said they would not be ready for the exams.
The survey indicated a low level of readiness (between 50% and 80%) for sanitising surfaces several times a day when the rest of the grades return on August 24 across eight provinces — with the exception of the Western Cape.
Masks could also pose a significant challenge. Only schools in the Eastern and Western Cape have indicated they have sufficient quantities of masks to ensure that by August 24 each pupil and teacher has at least two masks.
Maluleke said it is “outrageous” that schools are still not ready to open. He said the directives that schools should not open if they were not ready would perpetuate inequality among schools.