There will be no need for the Gauteng Department of Education’s Secondary School Improvement Programme if schools adhered to the department’s policies and programmes and if political leaders supported their schools.
This was said by Milton Buthelezi of the National Association of School Governing Bodies in a wide-ranging interview with Alex News on challenges in education in Alex.
Read: Bowtie-wearing teacher tackles educational inequalities
“There is no need for supplementary tutorial programmes on the basics of education if other schools in the same town, province and country are able to produce quality education outcomes from foundation level,” he said.
“Alex can’t justify why its schools struggle and continue to perform below expected while all schools are administered under the same policies, guided by same curriculum and books, teaching programmes and duration. Our children can’t be that dumb.”
He said principals weren’t tough and seemingly feared teachers’ unions and some political parties which accused them of victimisation when they tried to enforce discipline among the teachers and schoolchildren to improve performance. This, he said, allowed some teachers to spend more time in staff rooms than classrooms, and to come to school late without fear of consequences.
The school governing bodies, he added, do not understand their powers of oversight which include monitoring and participating in year planning and improvement processes. “They have statutory powers, resources to recruit more staff, pay volunteers stipends to ensure the plans are fully implemented and quality education is achieved.”
Buthelezi blamed political parties and ward committees, saying they have dysfunctional programmes, with no targets on education, health, housing and other areas to support schoolgoing children from child-headed households, nor do they address teenage pregnancy and substance abuse among schoolchildren.
“Together with churches, stokvels and burial societies, they rarely talk about concrete issues and solutions to local education challenges, resulting in many children getting addicted to nyaope and dropping out of school, others smoking freely on the streets, late coming, ill-discipline and poor safety at schools.”
He urged these structures to work collectively in the Alex Educational Forum to help it make fundamental improvements in local education by tackling challenges caused by among others, deployment of unqualified persons to key decision-making positions.
He also urged schools to welcome positive criticism from local and other experts and exchange good practices, rather than mock each other.
He said schools should expose and seek help on drug-related problems and deal with schools gangs entrenching themselves in most schools.
“The forum should work more actively with concrete plans and targets, and stakeholders must be truthful with each other at meetings.”
Details: Milton Buthelezi 076 786 7724.
