Submitted by Paul Colditz
The newly elected ANC president kicked off the new year with a seemingly sensitive and important issue, namely to institute free school education by 2009 for learners in 60% of South Africa’s public schools for the full duration of their school career.
This declared objective requires extensive comment.
On the face of it, it is of course a laudable ideal. One of the requirements of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child is free education for all learners in the primary phase of school education. The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child in turn requires “free and compulsory basic education” for learners. (The exact meaning of “basic education” has not yet been agreed.) The question is, however, whether this laudable ideal is feasible in a South African context, and what this context actually looks like.
South Africa has a total of about 25 000 public schools. In reality, though, only a small percentage of those schools actually levy school fees worth speaking of. On December 5 2007, just less than 15 000 of them were declared “no-fee schools” with effect from 2008. This means that those schools may in fact not levy any school fees and that they must provide education free of charge. They therefore already represent 60% of the total number of public schools in the country. This makes one wonder where Mr Zuma was when the Gazette containing this announcement was issued.
To put this in context, it is important to note that these public schools in any event either levied no school fees, or levied fees ranging from R50 to R200 per year. What is more, a very small percentage of the school fees were in fact being paid, simply because the parents were too poor or due to the absence of a culture of payment.
A further important contextual fact is the basis on which public schools are funded. Apart from the provision of educators to schools, schools receive state funding for their operational costs based on a sliding scale. In 2008, 20% of South African schools labelled as “most affluent” are supposed to receive R129 per learner per year from the state. Schools falling in the next 20% category are to receive R388 per learner per year, while the poorest 20% will get R775 per learner per year. Based on a learner corps of 1 000, the “most affluent” school will therefore receive R129 000 per year as opposed to the “poorest” school’s R775 000.
These amounts have to cover all the school’s operational expenditure. This includes maintenance of school grounds, buildings and equipment; service fees such as water and electricity; telephone, fax and communication costs; stationery; copying costs; all learning material; and security. To fully understand the extent of the state’s contribution, it is worth mentioning that an average school’s water and electricity bill alone amounts to as much as R360 000 per year. In one case a municipality charged a rural Free State school R240 000 for a year’s refuse removal.
In a 2003 survey among its members, the Federation of South African School Governing Bodies (Fedsas) found that the state’s contribution to the running operational costs of the schools included in the survey amounted to only 3% to 7% of the schools’ total costs. In the case of the “affluent” school mentioned above with a state contribution of R129 000 in 2008, this means that the school will have to scrape out R4-million to balance its books.
The same survey found that the single biggest expense on all schools’ budgets was the remuneration of additional staff appointed by governing bodies. This amounted to 30% to 40% of most schools’ budgets. Firstly, these so-called governing-body staff members are appointed to improve eventually the quality of school education by allowing smaller classes and more specialised and differentiated education; secondly, they are appointed for administrative and maintenance work.
According to a Fedsas calculation, in this way public-school governing bodies create about 100 000 jobs for the skilled and the unskilled, while parents contribute approximately R10-billion to school education. Without this contribution, with merely the existing state funding model, sensible and quality school education would not be possible.
Taking into account that parents who cannot afford school fees are, on application and subject to certain criteria, in any event entitled to exemption from the payment of school fees, it is clear that a much larger percentage of learners than only those in Mr Zuma’s 60% of South African schools are already educated for free.
Mr Zuma’s education advisers clearly still have a lot to learn about school education in this country!
Paul Colditz is an attorney specialising in educational and constitutional law. He was the national chairperson of the Federation of Governing Bodies of South African Schools from 1998 to 2006, when he was appointed full-time CEO of the organisation. He has also served as a member and chairperson of governing bodies of pre-primary, primary and secondary schools in Bloemfontein from 1988 until 2005.
Just as money buys you the best defence laywer,so money can buy you the best education. In a typical
model C,say technical shool of say 900. students
fess would average R 5 600 per annum,sliding scale
would apply if more than one student per family.
This would result in an annual income of R5m.
This not a lot if you have to pay additional staff
and fund all the running expenditure of the workshops as well.
I prefer the old fashioned student because teacher
are there to help you study,the process of learning
about a subject by going to school,college etc.
Learning would be the process of gaining knowledge and experience, which you can do by
studying, but also by keeping your eyes open to see how others do it.
Not everybody want to be a college professor etc.
We also need artisans to keep things afloat so
I would like to see a spilt after GRADE 10, IF you
want to follow an academic career, to be a laywer,doctor,professor you follow a different curriculum to those who want to be engineers,artisans etc.
you should have listened to the ANC president, he said 60 percent of the schools, not 60 percent of learners- mathematical literacy tells me that if 60 percent of the schools are no fee schools then more than 80 percent of the children will receive free education.
I don’t think that Mr. Zuma is on a wrong path.
The trend in Africa is for a free primary at least Education.
Some schools in Africa are providing lunch in order to attract more students.
Free Education is the best wsy to beat statistics about iliteratecy.
Now if you have schools in South Africa that have benefited from the State and may see their funding diminished or transfered elsewhere in other communities.
I can understand your grievances
“Free Education is the best wsy to beat statistics about iliteratecy.”?
That says it all, I think…
I live in australia where aboriginal education is a thorny issue an aboriginal child who goes to school on that day gets
1)$5.00 (about 25 rands) each day I must stress
2)free lunch
3)a new set of uniform should he have left his at aunties place
4) pass to the local swimmingpool (no school no swimming in the +40 degree heat- never really enforced)
5) of course free education including books pens etc and sport uniform
Alas this does not apply to the rest of us
I am glad we dont have to bribe people to go to school in SA. Its one thing I am immensely proud .
Its a good attempt in SA by the Govt of the day to do this and its one of the positives which people should never tire of saying out loud to counter the cocophony coming from the crime statistics bashing
Am I right is saying that the government is not contributing enough to maintain non fee paying schools. In which case over a period of time the question will have to be asked – what education.
I wish JZ had said a free QUALITY education for 60% of schools.
South Africans love free stuff. “Do you like my new phone? I got it free with my gee-I’m-so-stupid contract. And look at this. I bought this with the R800 shopping voucher I got absolutely free.”
My problem with free education is that people will be less inclined to complain about poor delivery when it is free. Secondary education is in freefall. What does primary education look like? Any better?
I often wonder how much of her time is spent in pursuit of her business interests considering that the minister is reported to be a BBBEC beneficiary of the gautrain project.
The minister’s first response this year after the poor matric results is to write an objectionable pledge to be recited daily by all learners. Are you inspired by this, because I’m not.
Education may become free but would it be worth anything?
With unemployment levels at 40% a responsible government would launch a campaign to encourage all women not to have more than two children. If our population number remains constant, government would have no need to spend on additional infrastructure. China was forced to intervene and like it or not the rest of the world will be forced to do the same in times to come.
“Those are yours alright! . We at least need to get these people stealing images to start blogging! They probably just did a image search and grabbed them. They look good though!”