Durban - The Department of Education is locked in a battle with the Glenardle Junior Primary School’s governing body over the appointment of the school principal, which the body says was irregular.
The governing body of the Bluff school has since lodged grievances with the department, and referred the matter to the task team, headed by Professor J Volmink for investigation, implying that the appointment may have been irregular.
The task team is investigating a series of cases of misconduct within education nationally, including allegations of the selling of teachers’ posts.
Senior department officials privy to the details of the appointment fired back, claiming that it was above-board and that the most suitable candidate had been appointed.
They charged that the incident was racially motivated, something the governing body rejected outright, saying that the candidate was simply not academically suitable for the school.
The clash played out on Monday afternoon as the department brought the new principal to the school. The principal was allegedly told to leave by governing body members when she first arrived in January.
The Mercury has learned that following the retirement of school principal Denise Whitehorn, an interviewing committee was set up to find a replacement. The process started in October and was completed by November.
“We submitted our list of candidates, and the motivation letter of why we had picked those candidates,” said the chairman of the interviewing committee, Donavan Avenant.
“The department did not respond. I had to call our human resources person in January, and asked him whether an appointment had been made as the schools were about to open. He told me they had made an appointment… it was not one of the candidates we had chosen.” The candidate selected was allegedly in fifth position among the school’s preferred list of candidates.
Avenant said the governing body had lodged a complaint with the department, but that it had been ignored.
He said they had taken the matter to the Volmink commission, owing to a number of irregularities.
“We were told not to ask for any names or qualifications of those candidates we were interviewing. There was a union representative who kept interrupting the process,” he said.
Avenant rejected allegations of racism.
“The department has failed to heed our recommendation letter, and has failed to attend to our grievances. Instead, it has resorted to bullying tactics that resulted in the militant takeover of the school on Monday.
“This has nothing to do with race, the fact is that she is not qualified. This is a foundation-phase school, and she has never taught in foundation phase.”
A senior department official, who asked not to be named but was privy to the process, said the principal appointed had scored the highest marks in the interview process.
“I suspect that the school-governing body had a candidate that they liked. That candidate had not scored very high, (sic)” said the source.
“She (the principal) was in the fifth position because they placed her there. The person they placed last was the one with the highest score.
“What would be the point of conducting interviews if the highest-scoring person was rejected?” asked the source.
He said racism could be a factor.
“The school is predominantly white, while the principal is an Indian woman.”
The Mercury contacted the KZN Department of Education for comment, but had not had a response at the time of publication.
The Mercury