Equal and schools suffer
Bodies, but where they work well, staff and learners thrive. By
of the school in discharging their duties.
Osman said SGB members volunteer their time and skills.
Newly elected SGBS “should take the time to understand the fundamentals of the school, how risks have been and are being managed, and what is the journey of continuous improvement”.
Serving on an SGB, he said, is done with the sole purpose of seeking to add value and support to a school in its journey of stability, sustainability and continuous improvement.
“A quality primary and secondary education should not be a privilege but instead a right, and members seeking to serve on SGBS should see their role as ensuring every child receives that right.”
Osman added: “They say that it takes a village to raise a child, and my advice to members of the SGB is to be deliberate and purposeful in being part of that village. The school management cannot do it alone and a sound, committed, skilled and compassionate SGB makes a significant difference to the success of any school.”
No-fee school’s functioning SGB
For Klipspruit-wes Secondary School SGB secretary Lynette du Plessis, parental involvement has been the major force behind improving teaching and learning in the past two years and maintaining its 50% matric pass rate since 2021, when Du Plessis became the secretary.
The school, in Klipspruit West township, Gauteng, had not been able to consistently achieve a 50% pass rate for more than five years before Du Plessis’s tenure.
Under the present SGB, the pass rate only dropped last year because of what the school described as the calibre of the learners, who had been affected by Covid-19 and could not comply with some of the government interventions put in place, such as the Secondary Schools Improvement Programme.
This programme was launched by then Gauteng education MEC Barbara Creecy in 2013. It is meant, in part, to help Grade 12 learners to attend extra classes and camps.
In the past two years, Du Plessis said, the SGB has been working closely with teachers and learners to find out their needs, including helping the kids with meals in addition to the government’s school feeding scheme.
Part of the SGB’S contribution was to hire teachers with special expertise in certain subjects to come to the school for a day. The SGB also asked professionals who had matriculated from the school to give motivational talks.
‘Troublemakers’
A lack of discipline among learners is a challenge, which is a spillover from the community. Du Plessis said the SGB took a resolution to have a member on the school premises to deal with criminal elements, which are mostly disputes over cellphones and drug-related matters.
The school stopped holding Fun Days because some learners would bring liquor, drugs and weapons to school premises.
“We are raising angels until the door. From the door, you don’t know what your child is up to,” she said.
The school receives learners from five feeder primary schools in Naledi in Soweto, as well as from Lenasia. Du Plessis said
they have appealed to parents from these communities to be involved in their children’s education.
There is a need for SGBS to meet and share ideas, she said. This could result in a greater impact and deal with ill discipline in schools. It helped the school after its SGB met with local primary schools last year to identify troublemakers and they planned together how to deal with them.
The meetings also helped in dealing with the needs of learners going into Grade 8 at the school who are known to have difficulties in reading and writing.
Such meetings, she said, help those learners who do not have parents and need food at home. The school also has a garden where the community is allowed to plant vegetables, sell them and share the produce among the residents.
Fee-paying school’s dysfunctional SGB
The Kwazulu-natal department of education conducted a forensic investigation at Pinetown Girls’ High – a fee-paying school – after allegations received by members of the provincial legislature relating to irregularities in the appointment of service providers to renovate the school.
The investigation resulted in an interim report, which found, among other things, evidence that:
the SGB chairperson colluded with some
SGB members to solicit funds; the school did not follow transparent procurement processes or competitive bidding processes;
there was no proof that work was rendered
by the appointed service providers; and
SGB members committed gross misconduct for appointing service providers owned by their friends, families or acquaintances.
The interim report recommended disciplinary action, criminal charges and civil claims against the SGB members to recover the funds.
The school referred questions to the department. Kwazulu-natal education department spokesperson Muzi Mahlambi did not respond to questions.
No-fee school’s dysfunctional SGB
Mpumalanga education authorities said in December there would be an investigation into allegations that Inkunzi Senior Secondary School, a no-fee school in Numbi near Hazyview, forced parents to pay R50 each before their children were given their reports.
At the time, Mpumalanga education department spokesperson Jasper Zwane reportedly stated that the school should never charge parents any amount or withhold learner reports.
SGB chair Joseph Mokoena confirmed in a media report that it was agreed at several meetings that learners should pay the R50.
In a media report, principal Bongani
Marule said parents who relied on social grants were allowed to fill in forms confirming they couldn’t afford to pay the R50.
Zwane was approached for comment, but did not respond to questions.
SGB elections
Dr Anthea Cereseto, national CEO of the Governing Body Foundation, said there are no new regulations in some provinces. She said there is a big problem with some school meetings reaching the 15% quorum required for elections.
Other challenges, she said, include people who are not biological or adoptive parents claiming to be parents because they pay the learners’ fees.
“They want to be elected for the advantages they think they will get,” Cereseto said.
Some people still think being on an SGB is a paying job. “We need to emphasise that SGB members render voluntary, unpaid services to the school in the best interests of the school and learners, and not for self-enrichment or to add to a CV or gain a foothold for a political party.”
Federation of School Governing Bodies CEO Jaco Deacon said it is good to see schools running better awareness campaigns.
Ultimately, he said, the federation would like to see regulations that make it possible to get maximum participation to get the best possible candidates to serve on SGBS.
Cereseto said the Governing Body Foundation had presented its response to Bela to the portfolio committee on basic education in November 2022. It was unhappy about certain aspects of powers being taken away. “We know why it has been done,” she said – some SGBS had not conducted their functions fairly. “The real problem is that there are not enough schools providing quality education with all the frills that parents want. The education in fee-paying schools is expensive and the no-fee schools are not funded to the extent that they can [have] all the things that fee-paying schools do.”
She said the language policy is a big issue. “Only Afrikaans-speaking people have schools with their one language. Pressure has been placed on them to change their language policy and offer two languages of learning and teaching.”