Durban -
One of the province’s leading government schools is embroiled in a legal skirmish with education officials over the disqualification, on seemingly trivial technical grounds, of five of possibly the best candidates for the principal’s job.
The governing body of Westville Senior Primary School has launched an urgent application in the Durban High Court for an order compelling the department to disclose the names of all 54 applicants for the post, including those who were scratched, so they can be notified of the court proceedings and, if they wish, have their say.
Ultimately, the school intends to return to court to challenge the department’s decision to disqualify the candidates for no good reason.
But the department has already indicated its opposition, and has refused to agree to disclose the names.
When the matter was called before Judge Peter Olsen and he remarked about “our constitution which provides for dedication to transparency”, the department’s advocate said while his instructions were to oppose, the list would be provided to the governing body within five days.
The previous headmaster of the school, Eugene de Bruyn, committed suicide in May, by hanging himself on the school’s premises. He had been at the school for 16 years.
In his affidavit before the court, governing body chairman Tim Tyrrell said the school, with 700 pupils, was known for its excellent standard of education, with parents and pupils anxious to play a role in maintaining the high standards.
The governing body was required to make recommendations to the head of education about appointments.
He said vacancies were advertised by the department and candidates were required to submit applications and CVs on prescribed forms to the circuit office.
That office, in turn, was required to acknowledge receipt of all applications, indicating to candidates whether the applications were complete and met the minimum requirements.
Tyrrell said the department did an initial sifting process, determining whether each application was complete and whether the applicants met the minimum requirements for the post.
This assisted governing bodies which did not have the resources to check the veracity of academic qualifications.
The governing body then set up an interviewing panel to compile, through anonymous scoring, a shortlist of a “manageable number” of candidates for interviews.
Tyrrell said the interviewing committee established to consider the principal’s position consisted of the acting principal, Veronica Dixon, himself and another white male, and - to ensure representivity - attorney Asheeka Yetwaru and Aubrey Ngubane, a governing body chairman of Westville Girls’ High.
The principal of Westville Boys’ High, Trevor Hall, who was the Education Department’s representative, advised at the first meeting that all 54 candidates met the minimum requirements for the post but the circuit office had disqualified five of them.
“This was not because they were not appropriately qualified. They had all the necessary experience and were of good character. But they had been rejected for various technical reasons including forms not being properly signed or stamped,” Tyrrell said.
“We were of the view that these reasons were trifling and could easily have been corrected. They had no impact on the merits.”
He said while candidates were supposed to be informed if there were problems with their applications, it seemed only one had and he had launched a grievance procedure.
He said the committee believed several of the excluded candidates were worthy of consideration and so, in the best interests of the school and the pupils, they had been included in an initial round of anonymous scoring.
The names were then disclosed by Hall because the shortlist had to be representative.
But when they began adding up scores - and several of the excluded applicants seemed to be doing well - a representative of the SA Democratic Teachers Union cried foul and it became clear that any appointment might be challenged either by the union or by other applicants.
Tyrrell said the decision to exclude ought to be reviewed and set aside so that the best candidate could be appointed.
The matter will be back in court next month.
- The Mercury