[lg policy] South Africa: School governors sought

[Harold Schiffman]

School governors sought

KATHARINE CHILD | 02 March, 2012 00:37


Parents have been urged to take part in the school governing body
elections that kicked off yesterday and will run for the rest of
March.
After national, provincial and local elections, they were the
next-largest election in the country, said Governing Body Foundation
CEO Tim Gordon. The school elections take place every three years.
Governors Alliance secretary Kathy Callaghan said the governing bodies
must be chosen wisely because they ran the finances of schools.

The governing bodies decide on school fees, after consultation with
parents, and on the language, religion and admissions policies. They
adopt a school code of conduct and constitution. Equal Education
spokesman Yoliswa Dwane said the South African Schools Act gave
governing bodies a lot of power. This could be problematic.
Previously, white schools could make speaking Afrikaans a language or
admissions policy to restrict the numbers of black pupils .

"Language policies must not be chosen in a way to discriminate
learners' entry into the school." Dwane said she was concerned that
parents from former black schools did not participate enough in their
children's schooling. But Gordon said many people from townships were
"politically conscious and involved", while parents of functioning
former Model C schools often did not get involved or vote when things
were working.

Leader of the DA Helen Zille said it should be of "profound concern"
that an estimated 80% of school governing bodies in the country were
considered dysfunctional by the two major governing body associations.
"It is critical that . the upcoming elections result in competent and
committed people being elected to [bodies], with the capacity to
select quality teachers and to manage schools' finances."

http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/2012/03/02/school-governors-sought

--
**************************************
N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its
members
and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or
sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who
disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write
directly to the original sender of any offensive message.  A copy of this
may be forwarded to this list as well.  (H. Schiffman, Moderator)

For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to
https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/
listinfo/lgpolicy-list
*******************************************

_______________________________________________
This message came to you by way of the lgpolicy-list mailing list
lgpolicy-list at groups.sas.upenn.edu
To manage your subscription unsubscribe, or arrange digest format: https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/lgpolicy-list