THE calls by the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) for the axing of Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube has exposed differences in the education space and general society.
This was after the teacher union called for the minister’s head due to her absence when President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the bill into law at the Union Buildings on Friday.
Sadtu general secretary Mugwena Maluleke said it was unacceptable for the minister to not attend the ceremony, arguing that it demonstrated two parallel structures of government in the country, with the DA seemingly pulling in another direction.
“That is very unacceptable to have the minister not attending when she has been part of the planning team to ensure that we are here for the signing,” said Maluleke, who called on Ramaphosa to take action against the minister.
He said it was up to the minister to ensure that the legislation was rolled out without any difficulties, by removing herself from the equation owing to the objections she has expressed in the past.
“The ball is in the minister’s court. She has to make the president’s work easy by tendering her resignation,” Maluleke said.
The minister’s spokesperson, Lukhanyo Vanqa, said Gwarube remained committed to working with all stakeholders of the basic education sector to ensure delivery on the mandate given by South Africans, which is to improve the quality of education for their children.
“She remains hard at work to resolve the urgent challenges facing the sector,” Vanqa said.
Professor Suriamurthee Maistry of the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) said the tensions that had arisen owing to the legislation should not come as a surprise.
“As with any new legislation in a country with a diverse population like South Africa and given the unevenness of the South African educational landscape, we can expect that there will be contestation from those who feel that their powers are being eroded,” said Maistry.
She added that it would take a lot of political will for the legislation to be rolled out successfully. She singled out the decision to reduce the powers of the school governing bodies (SGBs) as arguably the most challenging issue at hand for the state, noting how the provincial heads of departments would determine important matters such as learner admissions, school language policies, code of conduct, and promotions.
Maistry said there was a perception that some schools were using the language of instruction to exclude learners.
“The reality is that some Afrikaans-medium schools remain all-white in terms of learner enrolment. One has to keep in mind that historically white Afrikaner schools in rich white suburbs only serviced Afrikaner children. They are generally better resourced in terms of school facilities (libraries, sports fields, etc), yet they are public schools that belong to all the country’s citizens.
“As such, children of different language and race backgrounds are entitled to enjoy those facilities, especially if they live within proximity of such schools,” she said.
A fellow academic from UKZN, Professor Vimolan Mudaly, cautioned against excitement over the new legislation, pointing to the current challenges facing the department, especially over the allocation of funds.
“The legislation can only work if the government begins to understand that the budgetary constraints will dictate the actualisation of some of these laws. More teachers and material resources are needed. Who will pay for this?
“Already provinces are being told to lose thousands of teachers. With a broader language policy, more language teachers are required as well. This again will burden the school budget,” said Mudaly
She agreed that the South African education landscape needed to be tweaked and the new legislation provided some hope for the future, adding that it was an ideal to have learners begin their compulsory education in Grade R.
“This is an ideal we seek. The reality is that we just began the process of reducing teacher numbers in schools. Does this mean that parents would have to themselves come into schools to teach or perhaps we could get the senior learners to babysit the Grade R learners?”
Mudaly predicted that it would take a while for the Bela legislation to take effect as the financial crisis would create sufficient chaos in the system to prolong its initiation.
According to the academics, a combination of an inadequately resourced education department, coupled with an insufficient number of teachers in schools, are some of the factors that may mean the legislation’s objectives remain an ideal rather than a realistic education landscape-altering move.