Collaboration School model in South Africa: Questioning private management of public schools as a means towards equity

• In Event: Are Public-Private Partnerships in Education Acceptable from a Human Rights Perspective?

Proposal

South Africa’s public education system is marred by the inequality in its society at large. Learners attending schools in poorer communities, which are prohibited from raising funds through school fees, often attend schools which suffer from poor school infrastructure, a lack of books and learning resources, inadequate transport services, and poorer levels of teacher training. Much of this is a result of the country’s legacy of colonialism and Apartheid, and despite the right to basic education being enshrined in the South African Constitution, along with the right to equality. In fact, the right to basic education is a unique socio-economic right in the South African legal framework, as its provision is not subject to progressive realization, or the state’s available resources. It is, as the courts have said, an immediately realizable right. While public education has made positive strides since the advent of democracy in South Africa, further interventions are required at the systemic level in order for true education redress to occur.

In 2016, the Western Cape Education Department began a pilot project with five public schools in South Africa, in which the Department sought to partner with two private entities in the funding and management of public schools: the first, a private donor, who would infuse additional funds into the school, amounting to up to four times the school's regular state funding budget, while the second would constitute 50% or more of the school's management body. The pilot project has since grown to seven schools, with moves to amend legislation to provide for the possibility of many more such schools emerging. This despite a lack of insights into how this model might be scaled to address widespread inequalities and inequities in South Africa's education system, and insufficient evidence that interventions of this type create positive systemic change.

On a practical level, little has been said about the way in which the collaboration school pilot will be monitored and evaluated, and the independence of that process. Civil society groups, academics and teacher unions have expressed concerns over whether the project can produce equitable results, can be scaled to address the systemic issues, and will provide adequate projection for educators working at the schools. Additionally, attempts to reconfigure the composition of school governing bodies that would give less weight to parents’ voice accommodate private entities involved in these schools has raised accountability concerns.

With this in mind, this paper explores the ostensible legal mechanisms on which the pilot project has gone ahead, and tests them against the Constitutional and legislative framework governing South African schools. In also explores the monitoring and evaluation of the initial roll out of the 'pilot', and argues that the collaboration schools model is an inappropriate mechanism for addressing the challenges in South Africa's education system.

Author

• Mbekezeli Benjamin, Equal Education Law Centre