PROCUREMENT AND SUPPLY OF LEARNING SUPPORT MATERIALS

Learning Support Materials (LSM) Budget

The Department of Education calculated the total financial requirement for adequate provision of textbooks for the year 1999 to be between R855 million and R886 million. These calculations were based on full provision for Grade 2 for 1998/1999 financial year (because of the introduction of a new curriculum in this grade) and the top up of existing textbook stock for the rest of the grades. However, in the case of certain provinces, provision for Grade 1 was calculated at full provision due to the fact that little or no learner support materials were made available for schools opening in 1998.

Provincial Allocations for Learning Support Materials for the year 1998/99

For the 1998/1999 financial year, the provincial education departments allocated on average 90.7% of their budgets to personnel expenditure and 9.3% to non-personnel expenditure. According to information obtained from provinces early in 1998, provinces had collectively allocated an amount of about R192 million for textbooks for the 1998/1999 financial year resulting in a minimum shortfall of some R673 million countrywide. Thus only R18 per learner was budgeted for textbooks on average in comparison with R61 per learner for 1995/1996 resulting in a decline of R43.00 over the period.

On the basis of the above shortfall, Cabinet approved an additional allocation of R200 million in November 1998. The amounts available by November 1998 for textbooks by province for schools opening in January 1999 are summarised in table 8 below.

Table 8: 1998/99 Budget allocation for textbooks

The additional allocation was managed by the national Education Department. The additional allocation raised the amount available per learner to R35.00. Provincial education departments gave priority in placing orders for textbooks for schools opening in 1999, to ensure that preference was given to Grades 1 and 2 (for supply of Curriculum 2005 materials), and Grade 12 (for Senior Certificate textbooks). Provincial Education Departments (PDEs) were required to claim from the Department of Education their respective allocation using invoices and delivery notes or audited statements as proof that books had been delivered to schools.

Expenditure on the R200 million additional allocation for LSM

The amount was approved in November 1998 with a condition that it would be utilised before the end of the 1998/99 financial year. However some of the provincial departments of education could not spend the amounts allocated within the specified period. The Minister of Finance approved a roll over of the funds on the understanding that these amounts would be spent before the end of the financial year. The expenditure as at 19 November 1999 is given in Table 9 below.

Table 9: Details of expenditure of the additional allocation

From the table above approximately R20 million remains unclaimed from the Department of Education.

Investigation into causes of lack of delivery of learning support materials

It had become apparent before the end of the 1998/99 financial year, judging from the movement of funds kept by the Department, that there was inefficiency associated with the procurement of learning support materials for two reasons:

• The additional allocation was not spent as rapidly as was expected considering the requirements of the schools suggesting possible inefficient management of the process of procurement; or
• The absence of systems of procurement in some of the provinces.

A summary of the issues which could contribute to the inefficiency of systems of procurement is as follows:

• The supply chain – from specification to delivery, is complex and in many instances it is not efficient and cost effective.
• The specification guidelines issued by the Department of Education are not always adhered to with the result that the quality of education and value for money is often compromised;
• The requisitioning process from schools, and their collation into orders is long and time consuming;
• The provincial tender process has proved to be problematic due to inadequate communication between the tender boards and the departments of education, e.g. the application of the policy to support small, medium and micro-enterprises (SMME´s), some of which are not creditworthy;
• The publishers only print after the provinces have committed orders. The provinces are often late in ordering, and with the publishers´ limited production capacities this results in the late delivery of books;
• There are inadequate controls over the inventories of textbooks available
• The forecasting and planning of requirements and matching these to funds available is not completed timely;
• The school year runs from January to December while the budget year is from April to March. This complicates planning. The provincial budget provisions have declined since 1995/96, from R740 million to R250 million in 1998/99 and learning support materials budget is vulnerable whenever overruns in other votes occur.
• The recovery of textbooks is extremely low. The books should ordinarily have a life of 5-8 years. In practice it seems books have a life of one year.
• Historically, there have been malpractices and currently there is a lack of adequate controls of quality assurance through out the whole process.

The Department of Education sought to obtain a clear understanding of what the real problems were and made arrangements for a Business Review.

Business Review: Learning Support Materials Procurement and Supply systems

The Department of Education was offered the services of Proudfoot Consulting and funding made available by the Open Society Foundation for South Africa and the Netherlands Government to conduct a Business Review. Proudfoot Consulting conducted the Business Review of the Learner Support Material Provisioning (LSM) systems in each of the nine Provincial Departments of Education commencing from 7 June 1999 until the end of July 1999. The objectives of the Business Review are summarised below.

• To obtain an understanding of the status of the LSM process in each Province, as regards the quality and delivery-on-time of LSM to learners.
• To identify opportunities to improve the delivery and quality of LSM, focusing initially on the delivery for January 2000.
• To assess whether any interventions may be required to assist the Provinces:
  • in the short term – to ensure that text books are delivered on time in January 2000, and
  • in the longer term – to ensure that the appropriate quality of LSM is provided cost effectively and efficiently to learners, within the budget constraints.
• To provide an implementation plan (road map) for January 2000 delivery, should any assistance or interventions be required.

The results of the Business Review confirmed that

• the LSM procurement and distribution process complex as it is, is not managed effectively. Except for the Western Cape, Gauteng and Northern Cape, the difficulties that each of the other provinces experience are largely similar.
• Although each of the provinces had a plan for procurement and supply of LSM in January 2000 most would be behind schedule unless precautionary measures were applied timely.
• Book retrieval systems in most provinces are not in place. In most primary schools book retrieval is either non-existent or less than 20%. For secondary schools book retrieval is about 40% on the average.

Proudfoot Consulting recommended that each province should appoint an LSM Project Manager assisted by a provincial Task Team immediately, if it has not already done so, to drive and co-ordinate the procurement and delivery process. Such Project Managers would require training /coaching to ensure delivery of the materials before the opening of schools each year and in particular n the year 2000.

Monitoring progress of LSM Provisioning by the national Departments of Education and State Expenditure

Towards the completion of the Business Review, the Department of Education together with the Department of State expenditure formed a Task Team to monitor progress regarding the procurement and supply of LSM for the year 2000. A team of three officials from the two Departments visited provinces during the week beginning 23 - 27 August 1999 to assess progress made since the completion of the Business Review. The teams consisted of one official from the Department of Education and two from the Department of State Expenditure. The teams were to meet with the Head of Education, the Head of the Provincial Treasury, the Head of the Offices of the Tender Board together with supporting staff of each of the respective Heads. This was however not the case in all provinces.

Findings of the Department of Education and Department of State Expenditure Monitoring Task Team

All the provinces had plans to deliver on time. However there were problems which were identified in some of the provinces:

• Not all provinces will supply materials to all learners. The major reason cited is the shortage of funds
• At least one province (Eastern Cape) will not deliver Grade 7 materials on time since book selection was only commenced with at the beginning of September 1999
• Since most provinces do not have a strategy for managing external stakeholders in the chain (suppliers, publishers and printers) it is doubtful that they would deliver on time.
• Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal had problems with the tendering process. (These problems are discussed later in the report.)
• Eastern Cape and the Northern province were experiencing budget constraints.

At the time the Eastern Cape had only R27 million to provide learning support materials to Grades 3 and 12 only. The Northern Province had on R12 million to provide learning support materials to Grade 3 only and none to the other grades.

As a consequence of the findings of both Proudfoot Consulting and of the DoE-DoSE Task Team, the Minister of Education held discussions with the Premier, and the Members of the Executive Council responsible for Education and for Finance in the Eastern Cape. The purpose of the discussions was to seek strategies to improve the budget situation for learning support materials. In the case of KwaZulu-Natal and the Northern Province the Minister of Education wrote letters requesting the Members of the Executive Council to seek the assistance of the provincial authorities to address the budget situation.

Provincial allocations for Learning Support Material for the year 1999/2000

Calculations from data available in the Department of Education show that for 1999/2000 approximately R1,4 billion is needed to buy learner support material for the phasing of Grade 3 and 7 in 2000 and to top up existing textbook stock for the rest of the grades. The R1,4 billion is made up of R285 million to supply learner support material for grade 3 in 2000 and R537 million to supply learner support material for grade 7 in 2000. The remaining R580 millions to top up existing textbook for the rest of the grades. The figure may remain stable or increase slowly as higher grades, (Grades 4 – 6 and 8 – 12), are phased in the next five-year period to 2005 depending on the efficiency of book retrieval systems.

The budget situation for the procurement and supply of learning support materials, particularly textbooks, has improved considerably since this time last year. The total amount that provincial departments had budgeted for textbooks has increased from R192 million in 1998/99 financial year to approximately R580 million for the 1999/2000 financial year. The amounts for Gauteng and the Western Cape include provision for textbooks and stationery. The basic reason for this is that in implementing the Norms and Standards for Funding schools the two provinces make global allocations to each school without splitting the amounts.

Table 10 below shows a tabulation of the budget allocations per province for the procurement and distribution of learning support materials (textbooks and stationery).

Table 10: Budget figures for textbooks and school stationery for the 1999/2000 financial year

In August 1999, the Eastern Cape had only R27 million available for LSM while the Northern Province had only R12 million. The Eastern Cape and Northern Province has indicated, in the report of the Member of the Executive Council responsible for education, an amount of R75 million and R94.9 million for the procurement and supply of LSM in the year 2000. This increase may be attributed in part to the intervention of the Minister of Education in the two provinces.

Learning Support Material Requisitions

All the provincial departments of education have completed the process of requisitions of textbooks. However only four provincial departments of education Free State, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape and Western Cape have indicated that they have done requisitions for all the grades. The remaining provinces have done requisitions for selected grades. Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Northern Province have selected Grads 1, 2, 3, 7, and 12 for the provision of textbooks.

Gauteng will provide for all the grades except Grades 4 and 8 while North West will provide for only Grades 3 and 7. Four provinces, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Northern Province and North-West, have indicated as the main reason that they are constrained by lack of adequate funding in providing all the LSM requirements to schools. Gauteng has unfortunately not given a reason for not providing for Grads 4 and 8. The level of LSM provisioning has therefore improved in all provincial departments compared to this time last year. In the 1998/99 financial year only grades 1, 2, and 12.were given priority. For the 1999/200 financial year grades 3, 7 and 12 have been given priority for full provision; grades 1, 2 and 12 for topping-up. The remaining grades will be provided for in most provinces depending on available funds.

Similarly all the provincial departments of education have completed the process of requisitions of stationery. However KwaZulu-Natal has reported that it will not be providing stationery to schools. The reason for this is lack of adequate funding for learning support materials. Eastern Cape has reported that it will only be providing stationery from Grade 1 to Grade 9. No stationery will be provided to Grades 10 – 12. The reason given is also lack of funds. The remaining provinces, (Free State, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, Northern Province and North West) will provide schools with tationery.

Tendering process and placement of orders

The tendering process is one of the steps that usually result in enormous delays. This is a necessary step which precedes the placement of orders. Provincial Tender Boards are required to approve departments of education submissions on suitable suppliers or otherwise to select suitable suppliers. It is the authority of the Tender Boards that becomes a stumbling block in the procurement of learning support materials. This is the situation again this year in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, and Mpumalanga. The acts however are different for an individual province.

Eastern Cape

The Eastern Cape place orders to the value of R24 million on 8 and 29 October 1999 with 292 suppliers. The suppliers used are 164 booksellers and 128 SMMEs. The suppliers were selected using the ‘clustering model´ in which all suppliers register with the department of education. There is no tendering required in this model which was approved in August 1999 by the provincial Tender Board. This however brings into question a logistical problem of managing so many suppliers. There are no measures that can be put in place at this stage other than encouraging the province to set in place a plan for managing the suppliers.

As has already been stated earlier the department of education did not have adequate funds to procure learning support materials. After the intervention by the Minister of Education the Provincial Treasury made a sum of R90 million available for the procurement and distribution of learning support materials on condition that the process was put on tender to take advantage of competitive prices and services. The province had not prior to this year employed the tendering process. This has meant that the department has had to initiate the process of learning support materials for all the grades, except Grade 3, from scratch during the month of November 1999. The provincial Tender Committee of the Tender Board is scheduled to evaluate Tender specification on 23 November 1999.

The Tender Board will only be sitting on 9 December 1999 to evaluate and approve the tender specifications unless a special meeting is set up for the purpose. The tender specifications will therefore only be advertised after the meeting of the Tender Board. Assuming that the tender specifications are advertised soon after the meeting of the Tender Board, assuming further that the tender is advertised for the full prescribe period, the evaluation of the tenders will only be completed in January 2000. The implication is therefore that the Eastern Cape will only be in a position to place orders in January 2000 at the earliest. This will no doubt result in the delay in supplying schools with materials within the first week of schools opening in January 2000. The provincial department is therefore faced with a dilemma. If it does not go the tendering route it will not be given funds to procure the required learning support materials. The condition requiring the provincial department of education to advertise a tender has been agreed upon by both Members of the Executive Council responsible for Provincial Treasury and for Education respectively.

KwaZulu-Natal

There has been a delay with the tendering process in this province. Successful suppliers were awarded tenders on 08 October 1999. A waiting period of one week after the tender has been approved is required by provincial legislation governing the functioning of the provincial tender Board. This waiting period was provided for to allow companies that may feel prejudiced to appeal against the awards. The Tender Board is scheduled to hear the appeals against the Tender Board´s selection of suppliers on 24 November 1999. Under these circumstances there is nothing that the provincial department of education can do, as this is a process that is legislated on in the province. The effect though is that this may result in delaying the procurement and supply of learning materials in January 2000.

Mpumalanga

The provincial Tender Board is scheduled to meet on 18 – 19 November 1999 to evaluate and award tenders to suppliers. The function of the suppliers in the province is to transport learning support materials from publishers to the provincial warehouse and after packing the supplies to distribute to individual schools. The department orders materials directly with publishers. It has not been possible to place orders until the tendering process is complete. The department of education has put in place measures
to ensure that books are delivered on time in January 2000 despite the delay in the evaluation of the tenders.

The remaining provinces placed orders at varying periods beginning from 7 September to 8 November 1999 and have also reported on expected dates of delivery of the learning support materials. The information is summarised in tables 11 and 12:

Table 11: Dates of placement of orders and delivery dates for textbooks

Table 12: Dates of placement of orders and delivery dates for stationery

Table 11 on the placement and delivery of textbooks reflects that only three provinces have plans to supply schools with all the textbooks. All the provinces, except KwaZulu-Natal, expect to have completed deliveries by the third week in the year 2000. Eastern Cape may not deliver as they expect for reasons that have already been explained. The table below is a summary of information available from the reports of the Members of the Executive Council Table 12 on the placement and delivery of stationery reflects that all provinces, except Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, have plans to supply schools with all the stationery. All the provinces, except KwaZulu-Natal, expect to have completed deliveries by the third week in the year 2000. Eastern Cape may not deliver as they expect for reasons that have been explained earlier in the report.

Payment of outstanding accounts from the previous financial years 1997/98 and 198/99

Four provinces still have accounts that have not been paid from the past two financial years. The Eastern Cape has reported that it still owes R2.5 million for 1997/99 and R0.6 million for the 1998/99. The Member of the Executive Council responsible for Education has reported that The Head of Department approached Provincial Treasury to provide the necessary funds.

The Member of the Executive Council responsible for Education in the Free State has reported that an amount of approximately R6 million for 1998/99 has still not been paid out to the publishers. The Head of Education has established a Task Team to investigate the matter and ensure that all outstanding accounts are settled.

Similarly the Executive Council responsible for Education in the NorthWest has reported that an amount of R6.4 million for textbooks has still not been paid out to suppliers. The reason for this is that suppliers have failed to provide the Department of Education with invoices required to process payments. Letters to suppliers have been written by the Department of Education giving a deadline of 30 October 1999 failing which the orders will be canceled.

Report on the state of readiness of the provinces for the implementation of the National Norms and Standards for School Funding in January 2000

Background:

The National Norms and Standards for School Funding were published in the Government Gazette, No. 19347 on 12 October 1998. It sets out the national norms and minimum standards for school funding in terms of the South African Schools Act, 1996 (No. 84 of 1996). The Norms and Standards, apply only to the allocation of non-personnel expenditure on schooling.

The norms became national policy on 1 April 1999 and the funding norms and standards are to be implemented at the beginning of the school year starting in January 2000. The main aims of the national norms and standards for school funding are:

• To remove inequities in the distribution of public resources for education, both across provinces and within provinces through the Ministry´s personnel and funding policies; and,
• To effect redress and improve equity by specifically targeting public spending on schools to the needs of the poorest.

These aims will be achieved through the following strategies:

• Addressing inequalities by establishing a sharply progressive state funding policy for ordinary public schools, which favours poor communities;
• Targeting capital cost allocations for the construction of new schools or additional classrooms and learning facilities to the neediest population where "need" in this expenditure category is defined in terms of lack of current schools or overcrowding of existing ones;
• Allocating recurrent cost items on the basis of need, determined according to the condition of the school and the relative poverty of the school community, giving priority to the neediest and largest schools in funding;
• Allocating responsibility to school governing bodies with the necessary capacity to manage their recurrent allocations. The long term aim will be to allocate this function to all schools through capacity development programmes;
• Setting per capita expenditure targets for learning materials to ensure that all learners will eventually be supplied with a minimum package of learning materials. As an interim measure the provincial education departments must ensure that priority is given to poorer learners; and,
• Establishing uniform national norms for non-profit independent school subsidies based on the socio-economic status of a school community. Subsidy levels are related to fee levels on a five-point progressive scale, where eligible schools charging the lowest fees will qualify for the highest level of subsidy.

The following is an assessment of the state of readiness of the provinces for the implementation of the National Norms and Standards for School Funding in January 2000. The assessment is based on information provided by the provinces as well as an evaluation of the progress with the various tasks, taking into account the extent of the tasks to be done.

Eastern Cape:

The Eastern Cape is facing a severe challenge to implement the National Norms and Standards for School Funding in January 2000. A major effort will be needed to enable this province to keep to the implementation date. None of the critical tasks needed to proceed rapidly has been completed yet. The development of a resource targeting list is totally dependent on the establishment of a master list of schools. The other complication is that the development of a resource targeting list is a time consuming task and the province might also discover that the available data are not sufficient enough to develop such a targeting list.

There is no time left to supplement existing data with additional data collection efforts and other strategies to calculate indices for physical facilities and poverty indices will have to be utilised such as the 1999 Annual Survey (which might not even be captured yet) as well as the Census information (which also requires a huge amount of cleaning). No work has been done with regard to independent schools. Independent schools are a strong lobbying group, and serious criticism and problems can be expected from these schools if the matter is not addressed urgently. There is also no certainty on their budget allocation for next year which brings the process almost to a standstill. A significant degree of systems development will be required to enable the province to be able to implement on time. The province´s own assessment that the province is not yet ready, is clear from their report.

Free State:

The Free State seems to be on track, and will be ready to implement according to their report. The few uncompleted tasks will not affect implementation, and if the province keep to there anticipated completion dates the province will be fully ready by January 2000.

Gauteng:

Gauteng indicated that the province will be ready for implementation by January 2000. Their report confirms this assessment. The province should be in a position to fully implement by January 2000 if the outstanding tasks are receiving the necessary priority.

KwaZulu-Natal:

KwaZulu-Natal will be ready for full implementation and their report confirms this assessment. The few outstanding tasks do not pose major obstacles for implementation. The province has however deviated from the policy regulations in allocating funding to independent schools and this will have to be addressed as a matter of urgency. The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education used different criteria to rank their independent schools in five subsidy groups than those stipulated in the national Norms and Standards for School Funding. The Department also did not take the fee level charged by independent schools as of January 1998 in consideration in determining the subsidy levels of independent schools with the result that R 4 650 000,00 subsidy has been allocated to affluent independent schools which is in contradiction with the regulations stipulated in the policy. This deviation can be rectified in a short period of time and will not delay implementation.

Mpumalanga:

The province indicated that it is partly ready for implementation. A major effort will also be needed in this province. Some of the crucial tasks needed for partly implementation have not been completed. The fact that the resource-targeting list has not been completed yet, is a serious matter of concern. The whole implementation process is heavily dependent on the availability of the targeting list and it can actually be stated that this is the core task of the whole process. Numerous other tasks can only proceed once this has been dealt with. None of the tasks related to independent schools have been completed yet and this could cause serious problems.

Northern Cape:

The Northern Cape´s own assessment is that the province will be ready and this is substantiated by their report. No delay in implementation is foreseen because the outstanding tasks would not delay the process if the province meets the estimated completion dates.

Northern Province:

The province´s own assessment that they are ready is too optimistic. This province is in a similar situation as the Eastern Cape and a serious and major effort is needed if any progress is to be made. The province faces the same crises as the Eastern Cape, namely: unavailability of a master list of schools, no work yet done on the resource targeting list and not much progress with the tasks related to independent schools. Not a single task needed to be ready for implementation has been completed yet. A serious intervention and a lot of assistance will be needed. The fact that work has not even started on the resource targeting list is a serious concern. This process has taken months in other provinces and the province needs to realise that the sorting out of data and linking of Census information is a complicated and time-consuming task. The province might also discover that there are numerous deficits in the available data and there is no time left for follow-up surveys. This province is facing a serious crisis and is far from a point of readiness.

North West:

The province indicates that it is partially ready. The only task that has been completed is the development of a master list of schools. What is very concerning is that data are still being collected from schools at this late stage. The province is facing serious problems and major work still lies ahead to reach a stage of readiness. The calculation of the indices on facilities and poverty involves a huge amount of work and is very time-consuming. Most work are in progress but time is running out and the core tasks have not been completed. Work on the development of accounting systems have also not yet begun and the province will not be able to track school expenditure if these systems are not in place in time. A major effort is also needed in this province and this province is also in a crisis situation.

Western Cape:

This province has completed almost all tasks needed for implementation and seems to be the most advanced in progress compared to other provinces. The province will definitely be in a position to implement all aspects of the Funding Norms and Standards.

Intervention by the national Department of Education:

The Department of Education has completed a detailed audit from 18 October – 11 November 1999 of the state of readiness in all provincial education departments. A detailed report on the audit is available. Three provinces in particular were at serious risk of not implementing the School Funding Norms by the required date of 1 January 2000. In response, the Department of Education has developed an emergency intervention plan, in consultation with the three provinces, to ensure implementation by the required date. In addition, a more comprehensive capacity support programme for all provinces has been developed and is being implemented with the assistance of a consortium contracted for this purpose. All the strategies have already commenced and will run until December 2000. However, much urgent support work will be undertaken from the end of November to January 2000. A summary table of the findings of the national audit is included, followed by a detailed summary of the responses of the provinces on the questionnaire that was distributed to them.

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ADMISSION POLICY IN THE PROVINCES

Introduction

The provinces were requested to provide detailed information on the state of readiness for the implementation of the admission policy. This policy was developed for public schools as a result of the requirement of section 5(4) of the South African Schools Act, No. 84 of 1996, which provides that age per grade norms for each grade may be determined by the Minister of Education. Statistics received from public schools have indicated that a high repetition rate exists in grades 1 and 12. The reason for the repetition rate in grade 1 is mainly attributed to the fact that large numbers of learners enter the system at a very young age and cannot cope with the demands of the programme at that stage of their development. It has also been shown that the majority of countries in the world have an age norm for grade 1 as 6 turning 7 in the year of admission. This norm is also consistent with the entry age prescribed by the South African Schools Act (section 3(1)) for compulsory school attendance. The Admission Policy was developed after thorough consultations had taken place with role players and especially with the provinces at departmental and Member of the Executive Committee levels. This policy was officially published on 19 October 1998 to be implemented in all public schools on 1 January 2000.

A questionnaire has been sent to all Members of the Executive Council responsible for education in the provinces, to provide information on the state of implementation of this policy. Various key actions have been identified which are crucial to the successful implementation of this policy. All provinces have responded to this questionnaire, and their responses will be reflected in a thematic approach in this report.

Determination of Registration Procedure in a Province

All nine provinces have determined a process for the registration of learners in public schools in terms of the policy. These procedures have been published in various ways. The Northern Province, North West Province, Free State, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape and Gauteng have also announced it through local or community radio stations and all provinces have sent out circulars to schools to announce and publish the age norms and admission policy. All provinces except Mpumalanga published the procedure during July to October 1999. The procedures for Mpumalanga were published during 1998. Information about the admission policy and early registration of learners has been made available to members of the public. This information was made available to the public at the same time and in terms of the same processes as the procedure for registration (referred to in paragraph 2(b)). Gauteng Provinces also sent flyers to parents to inform them about the admission policy and procedures for registration.

Delegation of Functions to Assist Successful Implementation

Owing to the sheer number of the public schools in a province, it would be impossible to perform the functions of registration unless they are delegated to officials. All provinces have delegated the functions of administering registration at least to principals of public schools. The functions of supervision and control have been delegated to regional directors and district managers in all provinces.

Special Arrangements to Accommodate Learners with Special Education Needs

Free State, Western Cape and Northern Province have criteria set by the Head of Department for the admission of learners with special education needs to ordinary public schools. Northern Cape, North West Province, Mpumalanga, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng have not set any such criteria. The three provinces which set such criteria published them. Free State and Northern Province wrote circulars to schools. The Western Cape by announced them on the radio.

In the Northern Cape, Free State, Mpumalanga and Western Cape, the Heads of Department have received applications from school principals requesting that a learner with special education needs should be placed in another school in the same province or a school in another province. The Northern Cape has received 120 applications to be placed in the same province and 20 to be placed in another province. Mpumalanga has received a few applications for placement in another province and Western Cape has received ± 15 applications for placement in the same province.

Placement Tests

In terms of the admission policy only a Head of Department may request a test for placement or a learner or for a programme. Some of the schools in the North West Province (2 primary, 37 secondary and 43 comprehensive) applied for such a test, whilst no other province has indicated that any schools applied for permission to administer placement tests.

Feeder zones

In terms of the policy, feeder zones may be created to ensure that learners have access to the school of their choice within the capacity to cater for the demands for school places within the province. This is a discretional responsibility and the Free State, North West Province, Northern Province, KwaZulu Natal and Gauteng have opted to determine such feeder zones for public schools.

Admission Policies for Public Schools

In terms of the South African Schools Act, 1996, school governing bodies may determine admission policies within the legal framework set by the Constitution, the SA Schools Act and provincial legislation. The Head of Department must admit learners to a particular school by taking into account the policy of the particular school. It is clear that the provinces are not in possession of all these policies. The principal of a public school administers the admission policy particular to the school and other national policy and laws. Regional directors and district officers must supervise this action and without the specific school policy it may lead to conflict. This is, however, manageable, as such policies will be easily available to them. The Department of Education will continue to monitor the implementation of the policy.

Registration of Learners in Public Schools

KwaZulu-Natal started the process of registration during March 1999. The other provinces commenced with this process from July/August 1999. Mpumalanga only commenced with the process during November 1999. This process also caters for late registration of learners and will run through to January 2000. From the information obtained it seems that registration is on track, and statistical information at this stage is not available to determine fall-outs. It seems that the admission policy is manageable and that the provinces will be able to addresses disputes, as appeal procedures exist in most of the provinces or are in the process of being determined.

Refusal to register learners

The South African Schools Act 1996 and the admission policy stipulates that no school may refuse to register a learner because of failure by a parent to pay school fees, or to subscribe to the admission policy or to enter into a contract. Most provinces Three provinces (Northern Cape, Northern Province and Western Cape) have responded that there have been no such cases Eastern Cape, Free State and KwaZulu-Natal have not commented on the issue. Gauteng indicated that there had only been one such case. North West has recorded the largest number of refusal of learners in its schools. The largest number is at the primary school level; 156 for failure to pay fees, 102 for refusal to subscribe to the admission policy set by the governing body and 111 for refusal to enter into a contract. These Minister of Education will monitor these developments further in the year 2000.

Admission of gifted children

There has been quite a debate in the media during the second half of 1999 regarding age of admission of a learner to Grade 1. The age of entry to Grade 1 is determined in terms of the South African Schools Act, 1996 which requires that every parent must cause every learner for whom he or she is responsible to attend school from the first day in which such learner reaches the age of seven. This requirement is further explained in the Age Requirements for Admission to an Ordinary Public School published in the Government Gazette on 19 October 1998.

However members of the public entered the debate only in 1999 a year after the publication of the age grade norms. There have also been extended debates within the Council of Education Ministers particularly with respect to the admission of learners who are ‘school ready´ or who are ‘gifted´. The latter is the argument favoured largely by members of the public from privileged communities. The Minister of Education has however made it clear that the South African Schools Act, 1996 and the admission policy were subjected to extensive consultation before the two policy instruments were published.

CAPACITY OF THE MANAGEMENT ECHELON IN PROVINCIAL DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Stability in the position of Head of Education

Seven of the nine provincial departments of education have been affected by changes in the leadership of the departments in the past six years since 1994 after the elections. Only Gauteng and the Western Cape have retained their provincial Heads of Education since their appointment as Heads of Education soon after the change of government in 1995. The remaining seven provinces have had more than one Head of Education in the six-year period. There has thus been no continuity in the leadership of education in these provinces. The performance of the different provincial departments varies depending, to a large extent, on the caliber of its management echelon and to, a minor extent, on the number of changes in leadership that the departments have undergone in the period.

Mpumalanga, Northern Cape and Northern Provinces are operating under the leadership of Acting Heads of Education. The Head of Education in Mpumalanga, appointed on 1 May 1995, was suspended with effect from 1 July 1999 as a result of the Senior Certificate examination debacle at the end of 1998. The national Department of Education has seconded one of its senior officials to the provincial department as the acting Head.

The Northern Province, the third largest department of education, is the next department of education that has been severely affected by the changes in the leadership of the education department. There have been three Heads of Education that have served the department for varying periods since 1995. The first Head of Education, employed from 1 August 1995 to 1 October 1998 was charged with misconduct. No details have been given in the MECs report as to the nature of the misconduct. The services of the Head were finally terminated on 1 March 1999. The second Acting Head of Education served only for a period of one month, from 1 April 1998 to 31 May 1998. It is reasonable to assume that in this period the province was considering suitable candidates who could be appointed in this position. The incumbent was appointed Acting Head of Education in the province on 1 October 1998 and has been acting since then. The position has already been advertised, during the month of November 1999, and hopefully should be filled early in the year 2000.

The Eastern Cape, the second largest departments of education, has been the most affected. There have been four Heads of Education that have served the department for varying periods since 1995. No particular problems have been cited, in the report of the Member of the Executive Council, to account for these changes. The first Head of Education is reported to have resigned. However no details are given that could have led him to resign in two years. Since his resignation in 1997, there have been two further appointments on an acting capacity. The reasons for the termination of the services in both cases are understandable: the first Acting Head was on contract for a period of approximately six months. His contract expired. The second Acting Head was appointed for a period of one year. He then retired at the beginning of 1999. The present incumbent had acted in the position of Head of Education for a period of 6 months. He is now the Head of Education on a five-year contract with effect from 1 October 1999. Overall there have therefore been four changes in the six-year period. The latest appointment of the Head of Education should hopefully provide the kind of leadership most needed by the provincial department.

The remaining three provinces, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal and North West have over the period experienced changes in the leadership. There have previously been problems. The Head of Education in the Free State, appointed in on 1 February 1995 to 31/10/98, was suspended after the Duba Commission of Inquiry. The Head subsequently reached a settlement with the province and then resigned. The present incumbent was then appointed with effect from 1 January 1999.

In the case of KwaZulu-Natal there were rapid changes initially because the two Heads of Education who served the province from 1994 to 1997 were already of retirement age by 1995.

The first Head of Education was appointed after the election to coordinate the establishment of the new department. He served for the period May 1994 to June 1995 and then retired. The second Head of Education was then appointed on 2 July 1999 to 30 November 1997 and then retired. The incumbent has been in this position since 1 November 1998. The North West also underwent a period of uncertainty over the past six years. The first Head of Education appointed towards the end of 1995 was transferred to another Department by mid-June 1997. Since that time there was a period of uncertainty about the leadership in the Department. In the period mid-June 1997 to 31 December 1998 two Acting Heads of Department served the Department. The incumbent was finally appointed with effect from 1 January 1999. Since the appointment of the permanent Heads these provincial departments of education have become relatively stable with good leadership.

In the Northern Cape the Head of Education, appointed on 1 May 1995, was charged with misconduct and suspended with effect from 30 September 1997. The services of the Head were finally terminated on 1 January 1998. Since 1 October 1997 the Department has been under the leadership of an Acting Head of Education. Effectively the department operated under the leadership of an Acting Head for a period of over 18 months since the termination of the former Head of Education. Despite this, the department was stable during this period. The Acting Head has since been confirmed as the Head of Education in the Province with effect from 1 November 1999. Apart from the problems experienced by the provinces in the six-year period the leadership appears to have become stable again. This situation should improve once the vacant positions outlined above have been filled. The participation of the Heads of Education in the Heads of Education Departments Committee has again improved even though there are Acting Heads of Education in Mpumalanga and the Northern Province.

The Management echelon

The management echelon in six provinces is above 80% of the post establishment. The occupancy of posts in provincial establishments is: Free State 100% (12/12); North-West 92% (11/12); Gauteng 87% (33/38) and Northern Cape 87% (6/7); Western Cape 86% (19/22) and Eastern Cape 82% (19/23). The remaining provinces are below 80% as follows: KwaZulu-Natal 75% (42/56), Mpumalanga 46% (6/7) and Northern Province (72% 18/25). The province that appears to require attention is Mpumalanga as less than 50% (6 out of 13) of the posts have been filled. According to the MECs report these posts have been advertised and will be filled by 31 January 2000.

All the provinces have plans to fill the vacancies early in the year 2000. With the Heads of Education in place and the management in position in the year 2000, indications are good that the management capacity of the provincial departments of education could develop further and continuity maintained.

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