Govt to take aim at parents

2007-05-13 13:11

Johannesburg - The Government plans to force parents serving on the country's 26 000 school governing bodies to take responsibility for poor performances by pupils, the Sunday Times reported.

The changes to the Schools Act published in the Government Gazette this week would allow provincial education departments to give these parent bodies written warnings and fire them if results were unacceptably low, the paper reported.

Education Minister Naledi Pandor said the proposed legislation was not aimed at parents, but the amendments have been widely criticised as a move to "pass the buck".

Teacher unions and school governing bodies have warned that parents were not necessarily equipped to monitor results at the country's schools, the report added.

Salim Vally of the Education Policy Unit at the University of the Witwatersrand told the Sunday Times that the amendments appeared to be a "defensive impulse" by the Education department, which incorrectly wanted to lay the blame for poor performing pupils on the community and parents.

Pandor said she wanted to ensure that school governing bodies took an interest in the results at schools and not just determine budgets.

"They don't teach, but they are being made party to processes of corrective action. We are giving a signal as to the kinds of issues they should be paying attention to," she said.

As part of this new plan, principals would be required to prepare an academic improvement performance plan and submit it to the school governing body.

The president of the National Professional Teachers Organisation of SA, Dave Balt, described the plan to issue written warnings to governing bodies as being "very harsh" while the vice-president for education in the South African Democratic Teachers Union, Cidi Dipolo, described the plan as "immature"

"There are some illiterate parents on some bodies. You can't expect them to understand the academic side of things at school," the Sunday Times quoted him saying.

- SAPA