5.2 Data presentation
5.2.7 Impact of school categorisation on school finances
It is worth noting that again only the principals of the study schools were able to answer the question about finances. All post level one teachers were saying they do not have an answer for this question because they were not aware of the school budget and finances and how that impacts on the school. When they were asked if there were the members of the Finance Committee of the school governing body, none of them was a member. All principals of the study schools agreed that because of categorisation, they have challenges with school finances such as: most of the money went to utility bills, maintenance of the school and the school fees were not paid. Mrs Sibonga, the principal of Hloba Primary School had the following to say:
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We only received 40% on the allocated funds that we spend on paying for water, electricity and rates. The local municipality targets the schools so they escalated their costs and sometimes the school sunk on debts. The rest of the funds stay with the Department of Education
(Mrs Sibonga, principal of Hloba Primary School).
Similarly, Ms Maviyo, the principal of Ngoyi Primary School explained:
The problem of billing from the municipality affects us a lot, if they were become harsher in the next few months then we would not have electricity and the pressure of the water could be reduced because at times we do not have the money to pay for these utility bills
(Ms Maviyo, the principal of Ngoyi Primary School).
Likewise, Mr Zukwa, the principal of Lokishini Secondary School had the following to say:
School finances have been a challenge, for instance when I started in this school we would struggle to make ends meet because we were expecting the school fees of R150- 00 to be paid. Only 2% would pay to a point where the Department of Education now pay for each and every learner
(Mr Zukwa, principal of Lokishini Secondary School).
Mr Zukwa, the principal of Lokishini Secondary School further elaborated as why he felt there was a challenge in school finances. He stated the following:
The Department of Education pays full and pays upfront for every learner then you cannot believe that even now because of the categorisation we find ourselves still trying to service the debt accumulated over the years especially the years when we had nothing to service the debt. Whether the learners have paid school fees or not, domestic accounts needs to be paid that we were accumulating. There was a point in time when they threatened to discontinue or cut the services
(Mr Zukwa, principal of Lokishini Secondary School).
Even fee paying schools have challenges when it comes to school finances. Mrs Nodlula, the principal of Toyi Primary School explained:
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Our allocation was about R400 000, 60 % went to learner teacher support materials and 40% to non-learner teacher support material. So we are left with R165 000 for the year to run the school on average our water and electricity is R 28 000 per month, so we are looking at only five months payment for water and lights only what happens to the seven remaining months: what happens to the security because school has to be safe what about the cleaning of the school what about the maintenance generally, cleaning materials, sports equipment, how do we purchase the sanitation for our toilets? Ablutions facilities are not in good condition although they are clean but there are not in a good state
(Mrs Nodlula, principal of Toyi Primary School).
As much as the school is charging school fees to top up on its finances, Mrs Nodlula, the principal of Toyi Primary School further highlighted the following challenges:
Parents have to pay school fees to top up unfortunately not all of them could pay but also while some can but they take advantage of community meetings or political announcement that education is free. For an example one parent is a professional nurse, she is sister in charge where she is working she is raking hundreds of thousands of rands but she could not pay a single R1000 school fees she is taking advantage of political announcements. Such cases have left the school at a disadvantage, because when people do not want to pay school fees they decided not to pay whilst we not getting enough. Also I am not saying being quintile 1, 2 or 3 would be a better option
(Mrs Nodlula, principal of Toyi Primary School).
Similarly, another fee-paying school was facing the same challenge. Mr Bell, the principal of Mshini Secondary School explained:
That is huge, this school runs on a budget of R10 million plus and the Department of Education gives us only R178 000. What they give us does not cover the water and lights for a couple of months. But they expect us to continue to deliver certain levels of excellence, they hold us up in the ceiling as the school that delivers and yet they do not always appreciate how much goes into raising the school fees and to maintain it
(Mr Bell, principal of Mshini Secondary School).
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Mr Bell, the principal of Mshini Secondary School further stated:
The Department of Education and the District Office would come in and direct us to admit this learner and it works out being a no-fee payer. When they come with about eight out of ten of those learners that they impose on us would be the learners that do not pay school fees. Now I cannot get them to understand that what the school was because of the direct result of the finances. Although they do give us compensation back but I think there should be more from the Department of Education by way of understanding that the finances of the school are critically: it is the finances wags the tail of a dog and were directly impacting on everything. I sometimes say: we better be a no fee school and get R900- 00 per learner which was probably more than what we got per learner
(Mr Bell, principal of Mshini Secondary School).
Perusing the documents of Hloba Primary School, the school log book entry dated 31 March 2015 the principal noted that the school has received the funding for the Norms and Standards from Department of Education. This corroborates what Mrs Sibonga, the principal of Hloba Primary School mentioned during our discussion but it did not stipulate that it is the 40 % she highlighted. There was no other evidence to confirm that the rest of the money remains with the Department of Education as she stated. The frustrations the principals of the study schools raised when discussing finances, all of them showed me the utility bills from the municipality. In four township schools the monthly payments for the utility bills were between R17 000-00 and R 21 000-00 per month. Only at Mshini Secondary School the monthly payment for the utility bills was R 75 000-00 per month. I do not know whether this exorbitant amount paid by Mshini Secondary School was as a result that the school had a hostel as well. The evidence of the utility bills confirmed what the principals of the study schools explained during semi-structured interviews.
In terms of Section 34 of the South African Schools Act, 84 of 1996, the government was required to fund public schools from public revenue on an equitable basis in order to ensure proper exercise of the rights of learners to education and redress of past inequalities in educational provision. As much the schools receive funds but the literature states that there is a substantial disjuncture between the funds received by the schools and what the government expect schools to do and what schools are in fact able to do with those funds (Mestry, 2014).
In support of the latter Motala (2009) posits that the funding allocated to school makes it
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difficult for them (schools) to pay for basic needs thus resulting in schools being unable to continue with running effectively. Social identity theory advocates the concept of identity based on the social categories created by society (nationality, race, class, etc.) that are relational in power and status (Hogg & Abrams, 1999). In this the categories are the quintile rankings that guide the department of education to exert power in the form of funds allocated to schools.
The principals from the study schools felt the school finances is a huge problem in terms of ensuring that the school is up and running as they all lamented the lot of money they pay to the municipality for lights and water which are the essential commodities of the school. The findings also cited some parents who do not support the school by paying school fees. This suggests that the schools are experiencing a huge challenge in terms of ensuring that the schools run, bearing in mind that some of this school need electricity and water to conduct the lessons. Furthermore, water as such is a human rights need, if such is being disconnected it poses a challenge to teaching and learning in school.
The following theme discusses challenges of school categorisation.