The Eastern Cape’s Department of Education has overspent budgets and undercut schools once too many and now the national government will take-over responsibility – hopefully for the better.
The Eastern Cape’s Department of Education has overspent budgets and undercut schools once too many and now the national government will take-over responsibility – hopefully for the better.
Schools suffering
Heidi Pre-Primary School principal Amanda Coltman said that they do not have a nutrition programme. In April they were notified that they qualify for one and they submitted the necessary forms, but have not heard from the government again. “I can’t understand how other schools have nutrition programmes up and running, but not us,” she said.
Prudence van de Linde, principal of the Good Shepherd Primary School, said the school year started off with no government funding for the feeding programme.
“The only reason the school currently has a nutrition plan is because they made it happen. We had to struggle along,” she said. Only later in the year did the government send the money needed for the feeding scheme.
Van de Linde says fewer pupils now benefit from the transport services. Other problems are the lack of teachers and vacant posts that are not being filled by the government, she said.
Provincial take-over
August 26, the Eastern Cape Department of Education announced that it has been placed under administration by government following a myriad of reports of “inefficiency and maladministration”.
This came after officials in the department admitted that they had overspent the department’s budget by R1.8 billion while simultaneously having terminated the contracts of 6000 teachers due to “lack of funds”. Added to the concerns, they additionally suspended the school nutritional programme and scholar transport.
President Jacob Zuma appointed a task team to rectify school nutrition programmes, lack of transport, quality of education, corruption and to fill teaching vacancies. The intervention has not yet brought any relief to some local schools.
The article on the EC DoE explained further that “the province had also suspended about 100 senior managers with Premier Noxolo Kiviet last week, saying more were scheduled for disciplinary hearings and dismissals have been sanctioned already. Following this week's ordinary Cabinet meeting, Manyi said it was agreed that the national government should intervene "to maintain essential national standards" of education in the province, while at the same time ensuring that established minimum standards were met.”
They noted that despite the internal conflict between government and the EC Department of Education, that section 100(1) of the constitution gives national government the power to intervene when provincial departments fail to perform.
Do you think that the national government will do a better job than the Eastern Cape Department of Education?
