Just like the health care sector cannot be rescued by the ANC’s short-sighted National Health Insurance (NHI) plans, the education sector cannot be rescued by the deeply flawed and highly problematic Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Bill. Although the overwhelming majority of Northern Cape communities rejected this bill in public hearings, it was passed by the National Assembly earlier this month and now awaits the signature of a president who is becoming increasingly desperate to cling to power.
This Bill, however, cannot fix the Northern Cape’s education sector. Centralising power in the hands of unelected bureaucrats, undermining the role that parents and school communities should play, will not improve our educational outcomes.
The Bill forces schools to buy textbooks and stationery through a centralised tender system. The Auditor-General’s reports highlights significant flaws in existing tender processes followed by the Northern Cape Department of Education, resulting in more than R3.2 billion in unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure. Some of this financial drain on the provincial fiscus stems from the department’s inability to negotiate and secure proper learner transport on behalf of schools. At the start of the second term this year, learners from rural communities in John Taolo Gaetsewe were stranded and once again denied access to the educational opportunities that they deserve.
It also took the department an average of 60 days to pay its bills, which is double the timeframe allowed by law. It is far too easy to see how learners will be left without basic stationery and books as suppliers withdraw their services due to non-payment. This is already a common occurrence in the provincial health economy, as the Dr Arthur Letele Medical Logistics Centre can only pay one in five suppliers on a monthly basis.
The solution for financial mismanagement and misconduct, which robs residents of services and denies children access to quality education, cannot be found in either the NHI or the Bela bills. It can be found in a caring, competent government that cares more about providing educational opportunities for children than looting opportunities for cadres. It can be found in reviewing staffing and capacity at schools to ensure we recruit and retain enough educators with a true passion for their chosen profession, reintroducing fit-for-purpose performance management systems, and improving basic literacy and numeracy outcomes with a dedicated budget to make up for pandemic-related learning losses. It can also be found in empowering and supporting school governing bodies and families to deliver the best outcomes for each school community, because they are best placed to govern schools.
Ultimately, it can be found in the hands and the hearts of the DA in provincial government.