Friday marked the commencement of School Governing Body (SGB) elections across the Gauteng Province.
The Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) urged all parents to take charge of their children’s education by actively participating in the 2015 SGB elections which will run from March 6 to March 28.
The SGB elections is an opportunity for all parents to have a say on who is elected onto the governing body of their children’s school and possibly stand for nomination as well.
School Governing Bodies are tasked with ensuring that schools are run efficiently.
Their functions include maintaining school infrastructure, determining the language policy and sport codes of schools, pupil discipline, recruitment and recommendation of appropriately qualified personnel and determining school fees at fee paying schools.
“School Governing Bodies are an expression of our firm belief that education is a societal responsibility,” said the MEC for education in Gauteng, Mr Panyaza Lesufi.
There are over 2 100 schools participating in the School Governing Body Elections this year.
The outgoing members of the SGB started in 2012 and for the last three years, they have been actively engaged in managing schools as SGB members.
By the time the election process is completed on March 28, there will be well over 24 000 newly-elected SGB members.
A total of 47 provincial observers and 47 Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) monitors from head office will oversee the election process to ensure it runs freely and fairly.
There are also 500 volunteers across the province tasked with mobilising the community to take part in the 2015 SGB election campaign.
These are the third biggest elections after the National, General and Local Government elections.
MEC Lesufi encouraged parents to take part in the elections.
“The Gauteng Provincial Government has undertaken to radically transform and modernise the education system. This is a call to all parents to take interest and have a say in how this process unfolds. I encourage parents to join hands with the Gauteng Provincial Government by taking an ardent interest in issues,” he said.
