FEDSAS lodges complaint with Human Rights Commission, Public Protector over Free State Education Department’s failure to make school payments
If education is a child’s basic right than it is a democratic duty to act when someone infringes upon this right. The Federation of Governing Bodies of South African Schools (FEDSAS) will ask the South African Human Rights Commission to investigate the Free State Education Department’s repeated failure to make the annual payments to public schools. In addition, FEDSAS has instructed its lawyer to write a letter of demand to the Free State Education Department to demand that payments be made within two weeks. If not, FEDSAS will approach the High Court.
“Every year without exception schools in the Free State start the new school year without money for expenses such as water, electricity and stationary. Provincial education departments are responsible to pay over this money from the National Treasurer twice a year, but this does not happen in the Free State,” says Dr Jaco Deacon, Deputy CEO of FEDSAS. Deacon says so-called no fee schools’ future is directly linked to this money.
“In addition the Department is dragging its feet with the appointment of a number of principals and level 1 teachers. Despite the fact that governing bodies completed the recommendation processes in time and according to procedure, appointments were not made. Many schools in the Free State reopened without permanent principals or enough teachers.
“The excellent performance of the province’s matriculants was celebrated on a grand scale by the Free State Education Department. However, the Department’s share in this success is extremely limited. In most instances officials are failing children in public schools by withholding from them even the most basic necessities such as access too drinking water, toilet facilities and teachers.”
For years FEDSAS has been trying to address the problem by speaking directly to the Department. “However, all our efforts have come to nothing. Schools often have to use the little money they do have to pay legal fees in order to force the Department to make the payments. This is why FEDSAS, on behalf of parents and learners in the Free State, has decided to ask the Human Rights Commission to investigate this matter.