The department has missed its own deadline on a plan to bring education to more than 5000 Eastern Cape schools this year.
The failure to approve a service delivery model by the financial year-end on March 31 means, according to some unions, that there is no funding for the plan this year.
The deadline was set by MEC Mandla Makupula late last year and was meant to be the first phase of an overhaul of the department, which currently spends more than 80 % of its budget allocation on salaries.
Teacher unions were up in arms yesterday. Suid Afrikaanse Onderwyserunie provincial secretary Barbara van der Walt said the union had not been consulted while National Professional Teacher’s Organisation of SA provincial chief executive Peter Duminy said the department had made a presentation but unions had made no submissions.
Eastern Cape education spokesman Loyiso Pulumani said: “We may have missed the deadline but the department is on course to finalise the model.”
He would not comment on whether it would be implemented in the next financial year. “I’m worried of commenting on a working document. We will allow input from unions and stakeholders and allow the process to unfold. The final document will also be presented to the portfolio committee on education for critique.”
He did not say when this would be but added the delay was to accommodate consultations, including those with unions and SGBs.
The new plan, drafted by Makupula, will see the number of education districts reduced from 23 to less than 15. Circuit offices, previously abandoned, will be reintroduced.
Pulumani said the plan would ensure the optimal use of resources for various communities. “This will ensure value for money,” he said.
Pulumani said this would include relocating staff from district to circuit offices, which would be moved closer to schools to ensure better delivery.
The spokesman said this formed part of realigning districts in accordance with municipal boundaries.
Schools no longer viable will be closed and pupils and teachers transferred to those with adequate infrastructure. The restructuring of the department follows a draft model recommended by Fever Tree Consulting in 2013 which recommended the department increase the number of districts to 30 and employ more than 100 senior managers at the headquarters.
But Makupula said the Fever Tree recommendations had not taken into account declining pupil numbers and the possibility of “diminishing fiscal allocations” for the department.
“The alternative approach that is adopted in this proposed model is to concentrate more on staffing resources in district offices and circuits.
“Given that the department is significantly understaffed in the critical areas of the subject advisory service and in inclusive education, it is argued that concentrating staffing resources in these areas, and related ones in the districts and circuits, will provide the greatest return on the investment in the form of improved levels of learner attainment,” he said. — msindisif@dispatch.co.za
New education model up in the air
The failure to approve a service delivery model by the financial year-end on March 31 means, according to some unions, that there is no funding for the plan this year.
The deadline was set by MEC Mandla Makupula late last year and was meant to be the first phase of an overhaul of the department, which currently spends more than 80 % of its budget allocation on salaries.
Teacher unions were up in arms yesterday. Suid Afrikaanse Onderwyserunie provincial secretary Barbara van der Walt said the union had not been consulted while National Professional Teacher’s Organisation of SA provincial chief executive Peter Duminy said the department had made a presentation but unions had made no submissions.
Eastern Cape education spokesman Loyiso Pulumani said: “We may have missed the deadline but the department is on course to finalise the model.”
He would not comment on whether it would be implemented in the next financial year. “I’m worried of commenting on a working document. We will allow input from unions and stakeholders and allow the process to unfold. The final document will also be presented to the portfolio committee on education for critique.”
He did not say when this would be but added the delay was to accommodate consultations, including those with unions and SGBs.
The new plan, drafted by Makupula, will see the number of education districts reduced from 23 to less than 15. Circuit offices, previously abandoned, will be reintroduced.
Pulumani said the plan would ensure the optimal use of resources for various communities. “This will ensure value for money,” he said.
Pulumani said this would include relocating staff from district to circuit offices, which would be moved closer to schools to ensure better delivery.
The spokesman said this formed part of realigning districts in accordance with municipal boundaries.
Schools no longer viable will be closed and pupils and teachers transferred to those with adequate infrastructure. The restructuring of the department follows a draft model recommended by Fever Tree Consulting in 2013 which recommended the department increase the number of districts to 30 and employ more than 100 senior managers at the headquarters.
But Makupula said the Fever Tree recommendations had not taken into account declining pupil numbers and the possibility of “diminishing fiscal allocations” for the department.
“The alternative approach that is adopted in this proposed model is to concentrate more on staffing resources in district offices and circuits.
“Given that the department is significantly understaffed in the critical areas of the subject advisory service and in inclusive education, it is argued that concentrating staffing resources in these areas, and related ones in the districts and circuits, will provide the greatest return on the investment in the form of improved levels of learner attainment,” he said. — msindisif@dispatch.co.za
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