Independent Newspapers

Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga. Photo: Sizwe Ndingane

Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga has announced that the 2012 school governing body elections will be held from March 1 to 31.

The Independent Electoral Commission is to monitor the SGB elections in all provinces and help generate a report of the process.

National guidelines for SGB elections, training manuals and pamphlets had been developed ahead of the polls, she said.

“Creative and resourceful SGBs play a fundamental role in mobilising scarce resources for education. I call upon all parents with children of school-going age to take part in the upcoming SGB elections. This is your chance as a parent and a member of the community to make a difference to your schools.”

Parents or guardians of children at school, teachers, pupils in Grade eight or higher, and other school staff members were eligible to be nominated and elected to a SGB.

The principal was always a member of the committee by virtue of his/her official capacity. People with no children at a school could also serve on a SGB, but had no voting rights.

Basic education director-general Bobby Soobrayan said the size of the school determined the size of the SGB.

“Each province has a schedule determining the number of members in each component of the SGB,” he said.

An SGB member's term could not exceed three years. For pupil members, the term of office was one year. Pupils were allowed to stand for re-election once the one-year period had lapsed.

They were drawn up in a bid to bring uniformity in the system across all provinces.

The department said many parents and community members were often reluctant to serve on SGBs because they felt it would be time consuming.

The Timeslive website quotes Motshekga as saying that the department would be more intrusive in the election of school governing bodies from March to ensure uniformity and the maximum participation of parents and society in education.

The site said that previously, the IEC had played a minimal monitoring role, but for this year's elections, in March, it would assist in generating the report on the election processes.

* Deputy Education Minister Enver Surty said feedback from provinces indicated that about 30 percent of SGBs were not functioning the way they should.

“There is a close correlation between the performance of a school and its SGB. It's important to develop capacity among the bodies. We are going to monitor the performance of these bodies, without any doubt.

“Soon, we will be distributing 54 million books to learners. We want the SGBs to help ensure that the books are not only received, but used in the learning process. Our emphasis is on improving literacy and numeracy.” - - Sapa, IOL