‘Our education system is a wreck’

July 31 2012 at 10:42am Comment on this story AP Nobel literature prize winner Nadine Gordimer poured scorn on South Africa's education system as a wreck over the failure to deliver textbooks to thousands of public schools. Nobel literature prize winner Nadine Gordimer poured scorn on South Africa's education system on Tuesday as “a wreck” over the failure to deliver textbooks to thousands of public schools. The scandal has caused a national furore after leaving more than 5 000 rural schools without textbooks for more than six months of the academic year in a damning measure of South Africa's schooling 18 years into democracy. “Our education system is a wreck. It's a shambles. I can't believe that three-quarters of the year have gone by and so many of our schools, especially in the rural areas, have been without textbooks,” said Gordimer, 88, on SAFM public radio news. “It is the (education) minister's responsibility to see that the books are ordered in time and delivered. How can you teach people to read if there are no books to read from?” President Jacob Zuma is facing increasing calls to fire Education Minister Angie Motshekga. On Monday, he said he was waiting for a final report from a team he appointed to investigate the debacle. The education department was found to have violated students' rights to education after being taken to court and was ordered to remedy the situation. But a probe revealed that 22 percent of schools in the northern Limpopo region were still without learning materials earlier this month despite a scramble by authorities to get the missing books to schools. The criticism by Gordimer, who had several works banned by the apartheid regime, comes after peace laureate Desmond Tutu said democratic icon Nelson Mandela would be reduced to tears if he knew the poor state of public schools. Education is South Africa's single biggest budget item, but schools are hobbled by poor management and low standards. AFP Comments by Sonny Yes Nadine, where have you been hiding all this time...... The 'Old Die Hard Liberals' are getting their 'Rude Awakening!" Pay us or else, Limpopo circuit managers threaten July 31 2012 at 09:00am Comment on this story MOLOKO MOLOTO moloko.moloto@inl.co.za CIRCUIT managers in Limpopo are threatening to take the Basic Education Department to court over what they say are outstanding travel payments for circuit officials. The province’s 134 circuit managers are alleged to be owed thousands of rand in unpaid travel claims. Allegedly, some of the claims date back to May. “We are not even sure that they will pay us for July. Yet we are still expected to visit schools regularly,” said a circuit manager in the Mopani district. There are now fears that both circuit managers and curriculum advisers intend to stop travelling to schools until they get paid. If this happens, there is likely to be no supervision of curriculum implementation, according to circuit managers. “Every circuit manager will contribute R1 000, which will make it R134 000. We will then take the Basic Education Department to court,” said the Mopani district manager. “The provincial department is no longer in charge,” a manager from Waterberg added. The provincial education department was placed under national administration in December for alleged poor governance and financial mismanagement. Basic Education Department spokesman Panyaza Lesufi yesterday referred queries to Pat Kgomo, his provincial counterpart. However, Kgomo could not be reached and he did not return calls and text messages. The Star spoke to eight circuit managers in all the five districts – Mopani, Waterberg, Vhembe, Sekhukhune and Capricorn, and they all expressed similar frustrations. All requested to remain anonymous for fear of possible victimisation. “If curriculum advisers don’t moderate year marks, this will have an impact on the final examinations even for matric pupils,” said a circuit manager in Waterberg. He said curriculum advisers were responsible for monitoring the continuous assessments policy, which relates to the pupils’ scores at schools throughout the year. Circuit managers claimed they had had a meeting with the new administrator, Mzwandile Matthews, in May to explain their frustrations about the non-payment of travel claims. But some of their claims had still not been paid, they said. “After our meeting with him, some of us were paid for February until April, but nothing for May and June,” a manager from Waterberg said. “Some of us are going to have our cars repossessed by financial institutions because we can’t keep up with monthly repayments,” he added. “We spend 60 percent of our time visiting and supervising schools in our job,” said another manager from Vhembe. Currently, managers used their own money to travel to schools, but this was not sustainable, they said. “We are South Africans, we can’t just give up. But the day we decide not to visit schools, it will be because we can’t afford to,” he said. The managers also complained about the department’s decision to reduce their payment rates, allegedly without consulting them first. “Some of us were expecting R11 500 for the February to April payments, but I was paid R7 500 instead,” said a manager from Sekhukhune. A colleague from Vhembe said: “They now limit us to travel 1 750km a month instead of the initial 2 500km. This means if you exceed the new limit, you are on your own,” adding that this made it difficult to visit all the schools in his district. IOL Comments by Sonny If President does not fire the Education Minister and Blade Nzimande now, then, he is a Pussy!! Oh, sorry, he is waiting for his "Task Force Report!" The Government is eating cake, while, the Schools are burning....! Confucius say, child with no book, must look after cattle!