Quintile system outdated, useless
SCHOOLS in KwaZuluNatal are not adequately provided for and it is because of the very system put in place to help them.
The quintile system was introduced with the National Norms and Standards Act in 1998. It was meant to improve equity in education by ranking schools according to their infrastructure.
Schools with a quintile rating of 1, 2 and 3, for example, were deemed poorer as they did not have proper buildings or resources.
This allowed for higher subsidies per pupil and qualified the school for food and transport programmes.
It also eliminated the need for school fees for rural, underdeveloped areas.
Schools given a quintile rating of 4 or 5, like Chatsworth High, Phoenix Tech and ML Sultan, were allowed to charge school fees and, as such, required less support from the government.
But the system that was meant to ease the financial burdens of many provincial schools is proving a nightmare, says DA chief whip Mark Steele, who has been calling for the quintile system to be revised.
“Former Model C and House of Delegates schools have high quintile ratings because they are located in relatively affluent areas, where there are tarred roads and piped water and electricity,” explained Steele.
“But a number of schools suffer from low school fees and a low state subsidy. Some quintile 5 schools have parents who cannot afford fees, so the school has no subsidies and no fees, therefore the school relies on fundraising through sports activities, dances or sponsored fun runs.”
The principal of Chatsworth Secondary, Arthur Lukhan, said the quintile system was based on what schools were like 15 to 20 years ago. Social and economic circumstances, he said, had changed.
“The only thing that hasn’t (changed) is the quintile system.”
He said Chatsworth Secondary was ranked quintile 5, but the school serviced two informal settlements, where most of the parents were unemployed.
“Quintile 5 means we get about R179 per pupil and, with 200 pupils, that means we get about R20 000 per annum.
“The school’s costs for utilities and maintenance come to about R20 000 a month. What this means is that we have to do without many things, like daytime security.
“This places us at risk – we have been burgled several times. Five computers were stolen last year and that put the matric examinations in jeopardy.”
He continued: “We cannot offer subjects like visual arts or hospitality because we cannot afford it. That is what the quintile system does.
“If we were ranked quintile 3, we would get R900 per child, which equates to R180 000 a year. It’s a huge difference.”
Steele said the inefficiency of the quintile system was perhaps most evident in statistics.
“According to the March response by (KZN Education) MEC, Mthandeni Dlungwane, there are 13 quintile 5 schools in the province that scored less than 60% in last year’s matric exams,” he said.
“Meanwhile, nine quintile 1 schools achieved 100% pass rates last year.
“These are undoubtedly KZN’s Cinderella schools, punished by their location and for the fact that they have relatively privileged buildings and facilities from a previous era.”
Nomarashiya Caluza, of the South African Democratic Teachers Union, said the quintile system was problematic and that in KZN there were schools that were wrongly categorised.
“Our province is generally rural and you find that a school ranked quintile 4 or 5 loses out on the department’s share in terms of resource allocation.
“Teachers in rural schools lose out on rural allowances as the KZN Department of Education only pays a rural allowance to teachers in Quintile 1.
“What is disturbing is that two schools separated by a fence can be ranked differently.
“The whole quintile system needs to be reviewed. A better solution is needed if inequalities are to be dealt with.”
In 2014, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said she planned to do away with the quintile system. She said it had become difficult to categorise schools.
This ranged from the type of sanitation a school had to whether it had a library, and in some areas, the question often came down to whether parents could afford to pay or not.
“Despite plans to revise the quintile system, it is still in place and it is unacceptable,” said Steele.
“Approximately 30% of all KZN’s 54 095 pupils are waiting for pupils’ transport, which the Department of Education cannot afford,” he said. “The result is that, at every single one of these schools, there are pupils travelling more than 10km each day. In the case of Phoenix Tech, the figure is as high as 80%, while at ML Sultan, in KwaDukuza, 66% of pupils do so.
“If ever there was proof that the quintile system is failing, this must be it. The DA, both nationally and provincially, has asked for a serious debate about changing the policy,” he said.
“So far there has been little evidence of willingness by the authorities to take this matter seriously. We want to know why the system is still in place and why it looks to us like they just don’t see changing the policy as a priority.”
The spokesperson for the MEC, Kwazi Mthethwa, said: “There have been genuine concerns raised about the quintile system and, yes, in some situations it really does not make sense.
“The MEC is willing to look into reviewing the system as he is aware that, while it does correctly rank and help some schools, there are many other schools that the rating does not correctly address.
“Our responsibility is to provide quality basic education, but we cannot do that if the environment and infrastructure is not there.
“The MEC is aware that the quintile system does not, in all cases, take the extenuating factors into account.”
When asked why the quintile system had still not been reviewed, despite calls for it to be done as early as 2014, he said: “It’s a costly process. We would first have to do a feasibility study and make sure we address all the concerns.
“But, in saying that, the millions of rand it would cost to do that would ultimately save us more millions in the future. So I am confident the MEC will make a decision soon.”