KZN Education MEC has inherited a ‘cauldron of corruption’

Issued by Dr Imran Keeka – DA KZN Spokesperson on Education
17 Jul 2019 in Press Statements

At the outset, let me ask a question.  What’s in a number?  Let us think about this as I speak. We all agree that the purpose of education must be to exploit the full potential of every learner so that the result is a well-rounded citizen who can fully participate in our mainstream economy.  This too, with a skill set that would not only ensure such participation, but that this involvement contributes in every way to the realisation of a capable state.  If, in education, we do not set out with this objective or end in mind, we will turn the ship around very slowly.

Education and Unemployment

Currently, what this ANC government is doing is effectively and quickly contributing to the current unemployment lines – and I refer to the quarterly labour force survey and StatsSA, that put our youth unemployment as the highest on the planet.  The MEC’s comrades to follow can keep their ‘big talk’ about ANC policies for their soapbox antics because the country’s 55.2 % youth unemployment rate is the reality.

If we cannot agree that the origins of unemployment stem from the Foundation Phase of learning – with 74% of grade 4’s who can’t read for meaning in any language and 61% of grade 5’s who can’t do basic maths – then we can’t properly talk about the opposite end of the spectrum, our school leavers, becoming proper contributors towards the capable state we all want. So, we have to look at both ends of this spectrum with an immediate emphasis on ensuring better inputs on one end and fostering expanded relationships with TVETS beyond Grade 12 on the other. Then, we need to urgently look at the development here in KZN, of government-led apprentice programmes that will contribute to the realisation of a capable state – with basic education being the main contributor. 

Game-changers

The Western Cape, which has been declared to have the lowest unemployment rate in the country has already gone this route and is already bearing the fruit of this initiative. That province has also started working with local high schools and colleges to create a skills pathway for learners, and with employers to open up the workplace for these apprenticeships and other training opportunities.

Despite the country’s sluggish economic growth, which we continuously cite for so many shortcomings, the WC Apprenticeship Game Changer is on track to meet their 2019 target of 11 000 learners entering apprenticeship training opportunities. It is also on track for 13 000 qualified apprentices to enter the labour market in key sectors. While KZN is sitting here twiddling its thumbs, the DA –led Western Cape is creating fertile ground for opportunities!

Add to this, in 2019 alone, the WC created 700 opportunities through a government-wide funded internship programme for those who leave school.  This programme is now in its 7th year and allows for beneficiaries to leave with a skill set and something on their CV.  This is how you make a real contribution towards forming a capable state.  Again, KZN is its twiddling thumbs, particularly when it comes to the reduction of per learner funding, from the get-go right to the end of all learners school lives!

                                                                                       The salary bill

While Education receives the biggest portion of the provincial budget, a cursory view of Programmes 1, 2, 4 and 7 of the Vote 5 will show the enormous impact of the compensation of employees from the highest levels – in fact, 91% of the Education budget is allocated to this area. This leaves around R4.9 billion for everything else from infrastructure [despite KZN being the second largest beneficiary from ASIDI (Accelerated Schools Infrastructure Delivery Initiative], books [LTSM], pit latrines [notwithstanding the SAFE contributions (Sanitation Appropriate for Education)], Learner Transport [adequately expressed by my colleague, Hon Hoosen yesterday] and much more.

Now while there is this massive allocation to Compensation of Employees, we find that far too often our institutions are held ransom by members who belong to various social partner organisations and unions. This brings schools such as Mariannridge, Maqhingandoda, Falaza and others – with their compounded issues – to a halt at the expense of the learners. Often, there is no consequence management or proper conflict management between stakeholders – be they between SGB’s or educators and others – and then, there is no swift assessment tool to understand what the impact of all of this is on our true matric pass rate as an example. 

We are also in the season of intake for the next year and we can’t continue to hobble along because of these challenges and squabbles that stagnate progress.  The Western Cape Department of Education has established a School Evaluations Authority (SEA), as part of a piece of provincial legislation to fast-track and ensure that learners are put first.  While SADTU has initiated legal proceedings against this – and for obvious reasons such as to dodge accountability – this constitutionally approved entity will ensure that the MEC can zoom into problematic schools and leave with quick interventions and solutions instead of having to deal with halted teaching and learning as we find in so many schools in KZN.

I will soon be going to the Western Cape on an Education study tour.  I invite Hon Members to join me.  The MEC has his various fora to interact with Provincial Minister Debbie Schafer. MEC – let’s go and learn so that we can improve KZN’s real matric cohort pass rate beyond 37%, have safer schools, no corruption and capacitated contributors to a capable state.  Notwithstanding that financial challenges are always blamed on slow economic growth.  This is often blamed on an international slump – an excuse which holds no water. In the SADC region alone, while all other economies are on the upturn, only South Africa’s trajectory is the opposite.  We even have economies on the continent growing at around10% or more. Instead of looking inward to deal with those matters that are preventing our progress, we blame everyone else. Let us put our learners first.

                                                                                       A right royal mess

Having said this, the DA acknowledges that the new MEC has inherited a right royal mess. Listening to him at the budget hearings and today, one could be forgiven for thinking he had received this Department from a post-war period. MEC – what you are in fact dealing with is what we call a “cauldron of corruption”.  In this cauldron there are corrupt principals – with around 10 in one matter alone, who use school accounts for their own jaunts while the district level officials collude with them. Then there is the NSNP collusion and corruption, irregular appointments and the HR henchmen at work. Never mind the ghost learners, so principals can make money, and the burying of far too many forensic reports to hide all of this. 

MEC, to begin with you must resurrect one of those buried reports – The Norton Rose Fulbright Investigation Report on Technical High schools – and others if you want to topple this cauldron and spill its contents.  You can’t seek to be bold and then not bring these out into the open and deal with them, even if it means giving your own senior officials the boot.

Saving money and safer schools

The DA welcomes your audit of access into school premises. It is what we wrote to you about not too long ago.  This will go a long way towards enhancing safety at all schools which will also require measures beyond simply using the volunteers from safety and security.  MEC – I again urge you to collaborate with the DA-led Western Cape regarding their safe school programme and their already established call centre that is changing lives.

MEC – you can also take a leaf out of KZN’s Health Department and bring your infrastructure spend into the hands of your own Department.  Public Works, while still around, costs too much. Programme 6 will see a turnaround in its ability to deliver more.  We cannot have Grade 11’s and 12’s learning in a community hall cum ‘war room’, as is the case at Groenvlei in Amajuba.

MEC – a proper audit or head count of leaners and staff must be conducted.  This cannot be haphazard and hasty.  If the numbers are incorrect, money is spent incorrectly and corruption flourishes.

MEC – there needs to be consideration of more boarding schools such as Ndumo in Mkhanyakude.  The money saved by parents and the Department when it comes to NSNP and even Learner Transport – not to mention the safety factor in terms of daily travel – are  huge.

MEC – then there is the issue of ‘collaboration schools’.  The WCED has attracted R150 million in funding through this initiative. Yet here in KZN we are still talking about how to raise funds and involve the private sector. “The model involves a genuine partnership with the private sector, where operating partners with educational expertise, enter into contracts with the WCED and funders, to achieve specified education outcomes in a particular public school.” Helen Zille (2019).

Other critical areas which need attention include;

·         The enhanced roll-out of traffic and road safety programmes to save learners from pedestrian trauma and fatalities

·         Vetting of employees and those providing learner transport against the sex offender register.  We heard about the learner who was repeatedly raped yesterday from Hon Hoosen.

Conclusion

By now you will appreciate my question – What’s in a number?” – at the beginning of my Debate. While time does not allow me to explore all discussions, our engagements must continue on many fronts.  We all want to see better outcomes and better quality in the quantity of those that leave our facilities.  We all want to see equal and universal access for everyone – where everyone is safe, in a clean and healthy environment, where no one goes hungry and everyone has all their learning material. 

We all want to see our learners become active participating citizens in a capable state. Anyone who holds these fundamentals as their ideal has a friend in the DA.