Although I do not fully agree with all the arguments raised by Roxanne Henderson and Nic Spaull below, I do agree that the Quintile System is not fair, especially to those poor schools that fall in Quintiles 4 and 5.
Quintile system perpetuates school inequality‚ Equal Education says
Roxanne Henderson | 17 June, 2016 13:10
Schools in quintiles one to three receive more in government funds and often do not charge fees. File photo
The privatisation of education must fall so that the money of
South Africa's rich can filter through to poorer schools‚ advocacy
organisation Equal Education (EE) has said.
Speaking at its Teaching and Learning Summit on Friday‚ EE
secretary-general Tsepho Motsepe said that no public money should be
spent on private schools.“The Public Investment Corporation
(PIC)‚ and any other public entity that has invested in any private
schooling entity‚ should immediately withdraw such an investment‚” he
said.
“Profit-driven individuals or donors” should also refrain from pumping money into these already wealthy schools‚ Motsepe said.
The number of private schools in SA are on the rise‚ which Equal Education condemns.
Motsepe also said that the quintile system currently employed in SA's schools must be abolished.
The quintile system places schools into quintiles one to five‚ and subsidises them accordingly.
Schools in quintiles one to three receive more in government funds and often do not charge fees.
But‚
according to Motsepe‚ this system has perpetuated inequality in the
schooling system‚ with wealthier schools in quintiles four to five
attracting better teachers.
Traditionally‚ these schools are able to employ more teachers and offer them better salaries.
A new model is needed where middle-class parents paying school fees at top schools subsidise poor schools instead.
“We
have a responsibility to the poor. The poor continue to access poor
schools and are affected with youth unemployment‚” Motsepe said.
Education in SA – Still separate and unequal
Nic Spaull, an education researcher
in the Economics Department at Stellenbosch University, has the folowing to say:
When allocating funding to schools, the Department classifies them into
one of five categories called quintiles. Each quintile is meant to have
20% of schools ranging from Quintile 1 (the poorest 20% of schools) all
the way up to Quintile 5 (the richest 20% of schools). The
funding allocations
are pro-poor with Quintile 1 schools receiving R905 per learner and
higher quintiles receiving progressively less funding all the way up to
Quintile 5 schools which receive R156 per learner.
(Nic blogs about
education research at www.nicspaull.com and he can be followed on Twitter @NicSpaull.)
(Mr Louw, our current Grade 7 educator, who joined the learners on the camp, sent this report:)
Day 1 went pretty well. There was one teacher per school. The excitement built up as we were on our way and finally reached the camp at about 11:15. We were all shown our dorms and put our belongings down then went straight to the hall. Here Mr. Lappies spelt out the rules of the camp and the kids were divided into 6 groups with 6 kids per group. We then went to the beach where the kids played in the water a bit then were asked to create a logo and song for their group (pics to follow ��).
Points in the form of beans were given to the winner and all other teams. Dried beans are awarded as prizes and for courtesies done by kids. Bean points will be added at the end of the camp and winners and prizes will be chosen. This helped tremendously with the discipline of the kids. No incidents to report to date and their behaviour has been examplary. We then walked back to the camp.
We changed clothes and were ready for the reptile show. It was really fascinating. We saw lizards, frogs and lots of snakes both venomous and harmless. And oh yes the albino python which weighed 45kg (still a baby) and was about 6.2m long. We were allowed to touch most reptiles and some pics were taken. After a short 10 min rest we went back to the beach area where the groups competed with each other in a mini olympic games. Again beans were awarded for the winner and subsequent teams.
At about 18:15 we enjoyed a hearty supper. We had speghetti and mince, battered fish and pickled (ingelegde) fish. After a short rest where kids had free time to play ball games, after sunset we were back in the hall for a DVD show about our environment. The last activity for the night was a night hike. It was lights out soon after our return.
Day 2 holds more excitement with an early start of about 6.00am ending off with group concert and poitjie kos competitions ...
Mr. Louw over and out for now ��