A lack of funding is a burden on principals

SCORES of principals are struggling to run schools because the Education Department has not paid them their 30% budget allocation since last year, forcing principals to run schools from their own pockets and ask service providers for credit.

The affected schools fall under Section 21 with function C, which are supposed to receive money to procure their own supplies.

Some principals said that as a result of not receiving funds, they would have a problem running upcoming end-of-term exams, as they had no paper and ink for photocopiers.

Teachers’ unions said they were aware of the issue, and that the late payment were a tendency of the department that was sinking schools into debt.

In 2017, some principals said they had turned to loan sharks to run their schools, due to non-payment of their allocation.

The Daily News has also learnt that some service providers were refusing to continue to supply schools with ink and paper on credit, as they were not paid for months.

Principals said they had received allocations for textbooks and stationery for the 2019 academic year, but had been waiting for the remainder since last October.

The department said the schools that were not paid had not submitted their financial statements, while some had submitted statements with gaps.

Spokesperson Muzi Mahlambi said the department had written to these schools.

“We are aware that some schools have not received payments due to non-submission of financial statements, and some that have submitted have some gaps,” said Mahlambi.

But school principals said they had submitted all the required documents.

A principal from Ugu district said they faced the same problem last year and, by the time the department paid up, his school was sinking in debt.

Nomarashiya Caluza, provincial secretary of the SA Democratic Teachers’ Union, said they had alerted the department to the challenges faced by teachers.

“We received reports from concerned school principals about the unpaid funds and, upon making inquiries, the head of department Enock Nzama indicated that they were aware of it and that schools would be paid soon,” said Caluza.

“In two weeks schools are going to write exams and, without things like paper and ink, pupils will not have question papers,” said Caluza.

She said the department had received its budget from the Treasury and had to transfer this to schools.

Allen Thompson, president of the National Teachers’ Union, said teachers could not attend workshops and principals were forced to pay transport fees to attend meetings.

“It has become a culture that the allocation is withheld by the department. In the past principals turned to loan sharks, until the department prohibited them from taking loans on behalf of schools. Now principals have to run schools from their own pockets and, when taking refunds, are accused of stealing school funds,” said Thompson.