Johannesburg - Principals at schools in Gauteng would be rotated each year, Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi announced on Tuesday.
“Every September principals should be rotated in order to be loyal to the department,” he said.
Lesufi was addressing journalists at a media briefing at the Department of Education in Braamfontein.
He said that the rotation of principals was influenced by Corruption Watch reports which showed that most corruption as schools was done by principals because they had been at one school for too long.
Lesufi also said the results of preliminary examination that learners wrote recently were of a poor standard, especially in the fields of accounting, mathematics and mathematical literacy.
“We aren't where I want this system to be,” he said, acknowledging that there was much room for improvement in the country's educational system.
“There's a clear indication that we need to invest on what is happening in the classroom,” he said.
Lesufi said that the department was hoping to reach its target of having 3 000 schools operational in the province to take the pressure off on the current 2 780 schools.
He further said the department was losing more teachers than they were recruiting, noting that in 2014, around 7 000 teachers resigned from their posts.
“It's a huge problem as about 10 000 teachers are needed,” he pointed out.
Lesufi later said that schools in Gauteng were full and children from other provinces would not be accepted in these schools for the 2016 school year.
“We [are] under pressure and have two options of taking kids and having them at bad facilities, or I manage my budget accordingly.”
He added that by 2017 Gauteng should not have schools based on race, but rather schools based on the performance of the learners.
Lesufi ended off by stating that his highlight of the year was the dropping of chalk boards at many schools.
“For the first time in the history of our country, children don't have to imagine how volcanoes look.”
He said that by 2018 all learners would be on the smart board system.
ANA