Schools, hospitals may be targeted for inspections
A parliamentary delegation visited Nuhoop NGK Primary, near Porterville, yesterday to assess the state of education in farm schools. Chairwoman of the school governing body, Griet Romburg (in pink top) sat in. There are 37 pupils and three teachers at the school, which was initially on the list of 27 schools to be closed at the end of last year. Education MEC Donald Grant decided to give the school a second chance and keep the doors open. SCHOOLS and hospitals could soon be the target of unannounced inspections to address problems, if Public Service and Administration Minister Lindiwe Sisulu gets her way.
Sisulu wants the inspections to address high teacher absenteeism, long waiting periods in state hospitals and the negative attitudes of some nurses. The move will most likely raise the ire of the SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) which is openly opposed to the concept of school inspectors.
Sadtu spokeswoman Nomusa Cembi said: “As Sadtu we’ve been urging our members to be at school, on time.
“They (the inspectors) can come, we believe they’ll find our members there (at the schools). If they don’t find members there’ll be valid reasons for that.”
Sisulu made the announcement at the Public Service Commission’s national conference in Cape Town yesterday. Sisulu said the commission had already conducted various “assessments” to measure departments’ performance “against the principles of the Batho Pele white paper”.
The waiting time in our hospitals is completely unacceptable
In addition, the commission, in collaboration with the Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration, has also conducted “announced and unannounced” inspections at “key service delivery sites”.
“I would like to suggest that we should target education and schools because this is an area that we have declared as an apex priority, and reading the statistics from the HSRC (Human Sciences Research Council) that relate to absenteeism of teachers is very worrying,” said Sisulu.
She said state hospitals were another area of concern. “The waiting time in our hospitals is completely unacceptable. It is not just the waiting time, it is the attitudes of our nurses towards patients.” Since taking over the department last year, Sisulu said she had instructed officials to implement improvements in various departments.
Sisulu also touched on the troubled Limpopo province, saying it was “slowly turning the tide” and already witnessing the benefits of state intervention. She said they had managed to remove all “ghost employees” on the payroll system. The state had also finalised 47 charge sheets against employees. In December 2011, five provincial departments were placed under administration because of allegations of corruption and gross violation of the Public Finance Management Act.
The National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) is also vehemently opposed to inspections.
“Those unannounced visits whatever you find, what are you going to do with it? It’s one of those unscientific solutions,” said Nehawu spokesman Sizwe Pamla.
The reason some nurses got “irritable” was because they were “under pressure financially and worked under bad conditions”.