Cape Town - The provincial education department has subsidised 101 independent schools to the tune of R101 million during the 2016/17 financial year, Education MEC Debbie Schäfer’s spokesperson, Jessica Shelver, said in response to a Cape Times query.
Teacher unions have slammed the funding, saying money should be made available to improve infrastructure and upskill staff at public schools who cater to the most disadvantaged pupils.
National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa (Naptosa) executive director Basil Manuel said while independent schools have always been entitled to subsidies, there was no need to have start-up independent schools if proper funding was provided to improve state schools.
“You get schools like Bishops, and then you get schools that are battling, many are on the other side of that divide,” Manuel said.
He said funding was required for state school infrastructure and teacher development. “The way children from the most impoverished backgrounds can be reached is in the public sector and in public schools.
“There are far worse results in some of these (independent) start-up schools,” Manuel said.
Manuel added that independent schools were also emerging as public schools struggled to accommodate increasing numbers of pupils entering the schooling system.
“One of the challenges is staffing, this is a major crisis in many places. We are still sitting with school numbers in excess of 40 pupils per class. There is also the issue of appropriately qualified teachers. We need money to train our teachers and improve our public schools,” he said.
South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) provincial secretary Jonovan Rustin said the union would enter into discussions with the department on the issue.
“We know that some of these (independent) schools being funded are in disadvantaged areas.
“But we would like to see all schools become state schools,” Rustin said.
He said independent schools should be absorbed and become state schools for the government to take responsibility for the education of these pupils.
Shelver said the same amount of money was spent on subsiding independent schools in the previous financial year.
“Independents schools play an important part in education in South Africa - evidence of this is where independent schools make up almost 24% (as opposed to almost 13% in the Western Cape) of schools in Gauteng,” Shelver said.
“The department has a positive relationship with the 254 registered schools in the Western Cape and assists our poorer independent schools where possible, by providing them with monitoring and support from both head office and district officials.
“We also provide a subsidy for those that qualify,” she said.
In a statement this week, provincial DA spokesperson on education and standing committee on education chairperson Basil Kivedo, said the 254 independent schools registered in the province were located across all eight districts.
“This equates to 40% of all independent schools receiving support from the Department of Education,” Kivedo said.
“All schools that wish to apply must have been in operation for at least one year.
“We urge all registered independent schools to apply for support from the WCED.”
Kivedo added that he was pleased that the WCED continues to foster a relationship with independent schools through the ongoing monitoring and support provided from both head office and district officials across the province.