Education
1. Whether the concerns of the Concerned Parent Committee at the Divine Heritage Christian Centre (DHCC) have been bought to her attention; if so, (a) what are the relevant details and (b) what measures were put in place to address them;
2. whether she received a copy of the memorandum from the Concerned Parent Committee at the Divine Heritage Christian Centre (DHCC); if so, what are the relevant details;
3. with regard to media comments by the spokesperson of her Department that they were aware of some of the allegations raised and that they have investigated them, (a) what are the details of the investigation, including the (i) findings and (ii) recommendations and (b) when will the report be released to other stakeholders, including the Concerned Parent Committee;
4. with regard to the staff complement at the school, what (a) is the number of teachers employed at the school, including how many (i) permanent, (ii) non-permanent, (iii) qualified and (iv) student teachers there are and (b)(i) is the number of foreign nationals teaching at the school and (ii) what are the details of their qualifications and (c) is the teacher-to-learner ratio;
5. whether learners have textbooks and other learning material; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details?
(1) (a) Yes, the concerns have been brought to my attention. They included concerns about staff qualifications and education, the use of online teaching, the fees charged by the school, and the coverage of the curriculum.
While the school is an independent school, we do make enquiries where there are concerns that could impact on the registration of an independent school.
(b) An investigation was conducted at the school by one of our staff members. The school was apprised again of the expectations of the Department with regard to independent schools: (i) to use qualified educators and not student teachers, and (ii) all educators must be SACE registered, and (iii) to ensure the school uses CAPS curriculum and (iv) to ensure that all foreign educators have permits.
(2) Yes, I received a memorandum listing the concerns in 1(a) above.
(3) (a) (i) The investigation found that:
- Qualified teachers are being used, based on the information provided. The foreign teachers have valid working permits. The staff members are appointed by a board. Student teachers were allowed pre-Covid-19 to do “teaching” and the principal was requested to stop the practice.
- Parents received a list of stationery and textbooks to procure/acquire/purchase, as is their responsibility at an independent school.
- The online teaching was offered and made available to all learners, and WhatsApp was also used. During the pandemic all schools worldwide used every possible innovative method to teach learners, online learning being one of them. The mode of teaching has nothing to do with the contract a parent signed with the school in relation to school fees. The lockdown prevented schooling to take place, but education continued in various forms. We are aware that the financial situation of most people was affected, however, the teachers needed to be remunerated and as such as per operation of the law, school fees had to be paid. As the Provincial Minister of Education I do not have the competency to interfere in school fee issues at any independent school and I do not have the right to instruct an independent school or any other school for that matter to change its fee structure. It should be noted that the school did in fact reduce school fees during this period.
- Lastly, all schools were challenged with time to complete the curriculum and all schools tried to cope as best as possible to cover all the work on time through whatever means.
(ii) Recommendations:
- The principal was requested to replace the teachers who have left and to replace them with fully qualified educators, and to appoint an educator who is able to teach Afrikaans.
- The stand-in student teacher must be replaced by a fully qualified educator.
- Parents who want transfer documents must be requested to put arrangements in place with the school to indicate how they will repay the outstanding fees. It is expected of parents to settle the accounts as per contractual agreements. (b)
(b) All the concerned parents requested transfer certificates for their children from 4 August 2020 till 19 August 2020. WCED is under no obligation to give a report to the parents as their children are not learners at the school.
(4) The WCED does not keep details of staff at independent schools.
(5) As this is an independent school that is not subsidised by the Department, parents have the responsibility to ensure that their children have the required textbooks and learning material.
