Author: Cathi Albertyn
Last saved by: User
Company: University of the Witwatersrand

Comments on 

Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill, [B36 – 2010]

By

School Governing Body 
Parktown High School for Girls, Johannesburg 

7 January 2010

Introduction

1	This is a submission to the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education by the Governing Body (GB) of Parktown High School for Girls, Tyrone Avenue, Parkview, Johannesburg, on the Department of Education’s Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill, published as B36-2010.

2	This submission limits its comments to clause 12 of the Bill.

Clause 12

3	Clause 12 amends section 36 of the South African Schools Act by the insertion of new sub-sections that regulate various financial transactions and funding decisions by the governing bodies.  Section 36 (1) (which is not subject to amendment) places a responsibility on governing bodies of public schools to ‘take all reasonable measures within its means to supplement the resources supplied by the State in order to improve the quality of education provided by the school to all learners at the school’.  The proposed amendments seek to regulate this duty.

4	Clause 12 sets out the proposed new section 36(4) of the South African Schools Act which regulates the following:
a.	The power to lease, burden, convert or alter school property (s 36(4)(a));
b.	The power to allow the reasonable use of facilities for up to twelve months at a time (s 36(4)(b)); and
c.	The power to allow a business to operate on school property (s 36(4)(c )).

5	The Parktown GB’s concern is a narrow one, namely, that the proposed amendment concerning the power to lease, burden, convert or alter school property (s 36(4)(a)) unduly constrains the ability of the school to raise funds for legitimate purposes. 

6	The section only permits limits a governing body to lease school property, for example, if it does so ‘to provide for school activities’. It is not clear that ‘school activities’ would include agreements to lease part of a public school’s property for advertising-boards or cell-phone masts to raise much needed school funds.  Yet public schools do enter into such leases to raise funds that are then used for a variety of educational purposes, such as infrastructural development, maintenance or salaries for educators employed by the governing body. This fund-raising is necessary as the funds raised from parents through fees and the activities of the Parents Association, as well as the allocation from government, do not cover the costs of effectively maintaining high quality schools, such as Parktown, attracting excellent teachers and providing a diverse community of learners with a world class education. 

7	There is a legitimate need to regulate the power of a governing body to lease, burden, convert or alter school property. What seems to be most important here is, firstly, that the operation of a lease does not interfere with educational activities at the school and, secondly, that its ultimate purpose is an educational one, including the raising of funds for the school.  The current proposal clearly addresses the first concern, but not the second. It potentially limits the purpose of the lease to ‘school activities’, but does not recognise that a lease for non-school activities (such as a cell-phone mast) may nevertheless have an important educational purpose (such as fund-raising).

8	The Parktown governing body  therefore suggests that, for the sake of clarity, section 36 (4) (a) be amended as follows (additions underlined):

 (4)	Despite subsection (1),–
(a)	and subject to paragraph (b), a governing body may not lease, burden, convert or alter school immoveable property other than to provide for the school activities of that school, including to raise funds for educational purposes;
 
9	This amendment will provide the necessary flexibility for fund-raising by governing bodies, whilst protecting the integrity of the educational mission at the school. 

Mrs A Cereseto					Professor Cathi Albertyn
Principal					Chair, School Governing Body
Parktown High School for Girls		Parktown High School for Girls
Cereseto@parktownschool.co.za 		Cathi.albertyn@wits.ac.za
							083-267-3675