Education

Poor communities turn to private education

31 August 2010

It is clear that income or lack thereof is no indicator of demand for quality education.

Jane Roach is a CSI specialist in education at Tshikululu Social Investments.

In a month where many learners were not taught, raising the spectre of bad matric results once again, the Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE) released a study investigating the local occurrence and impact of the growth of low-fee paying private schools, an increasing international trend.

This is evidenced by a recent World Bank study, quoted by the CDE, which said that “˜private participation in education has increased dramatically over the last two decades, serving all types of communities from high-income to low-income families. Across the world, enrolment in private primary schools grew by 58 per cent between 1991 and 2004, while enrolment in public primary schools grew by only 10 per cent.’

The South African government’s statistics estimate that independent schools make up 4.6% of South African schools, in stark contrast to the CDE’s research which showed that the figure could be as high as 30%. This study clearly indicates that private schooling is a growth area in the South African education sector, and we should be watching it keenly.

Where are these schools?

The CDE researchers found 117 low-fee private schools in areas like downtown Johannesburg and in parts of Soweto. However, private schools are not located only in urban areas and were also found in rural Limpopo and the Eastern Cape. Of the 43 schools surveyed in the Giyani municipality, Limpopo, 14 were private schools. In the Tsomo/Cofimvaba area in the Eastern Cape, an area with a high poverty index, parents are willingly paying R232 a month for their child’s education, as opposed to taking advantage of government schooling offered free of charge.

Are these schools better resourced than the public schools?

Interestingly, these low-fee private schools had fewer facilities and resources than neighbouring government schools – teachers are concentrating on the task of getting their learners to pass their exams. The teachers generally earned less and were less qualified than their government school counterparts. Thriving schools were found in shacks, in abandoned factories and in high-rise buildings.

This then puts teachers’ constant requests and demands for resources into stark perspective. The schools that are getting the results are the ones that are buckling down and teaching their learners.

Why are poorer parents sending their children to low-fee private schools?

Parents interviewed by CDE researchers offered a variety of reasons for sending their children to these low-fee private schools:

• Better exam results;
• The schools are more accountable to the communities they serve;
• The teachers were more prepared;
• More discipline;
• There was less teacher absenteeism;
• There were smaller classes;
• Teachers paid more attention to the learners; and
• Learners performed better as they know that their parents are paying.

It is clear that income or lack thereof is no indicator of demand for quality education. Parents who cannot afford to pay the fees requested by former Model C schools are paying what they can for education services they perceive as better than what the State is providing.

What is stopping the sector from growing as fast as that in other developing countries?

Although there is a State subsidy for registered, not-for-profit private schools, the regulations that must be complied with to access this subsidy are daunting.  The subsidy also means that the school is no longer 100 percent independent.

Alternative funding for these schools is not easy to access either. Banks are reluctant to authorise loans if the school does not own its own premises. Corporate social investment (CSI) funding depends on the strategy of the funder, and therefore may not direct funds to this area.

What are the implications?

Now that the public and the private sectors know these schools exist, it is important that we gather additional information about the particulars of this trend in South Africa:

• Exactly how big is this sector?
• How fast is it growing?
• Can it provide quality education?
• Why are these teachers, who are less qualified than the State teachers, achieving better results?
• How will this influence teacher training?
• Why are parents earning low incomes struggling to pay these fees, when there is free State education?
• What does this tell us about the faith that the average South African has in State education?
• Does free education for all work? Or is free education seen as inferior and that the schools are not accountable to the parents and learners?
• Are regulations strangling the growth of this sector?
• Should there be more support for this sector from CSI funds?
• What standards could CSI funds apply to ensure that the schools they fund are achieving results?

The CDE concludes its report by outlining its way forward. One of the action items, “to host a workshop with international experts, South African policy-makers and major stakeholders on what the best regulatory framework would be to allow South Africa to fully realise the potential of the private schooling sector” was held on 12 August and feedback from this workshop is eagerly awaited.

The Independent Schools Association (ISASA) has been following these trends for some time and research conducted by this body helped inform the CDE’s research. Jane Hofmeyr, Executive Director of ISASA offers in a report entitled “œEducation Partnerships: Access, Quality, Equity, Efficiency and Choice” that “œ’Smarter policies’ should include Public-Private-Partnerships (PPP) and more state funding and support for independent schools to help government achieve its education targets. The independent schools in ISASA and other associations are keen to do this.”

The Centre for Development and Enterprise is supported by funds managed by Tshikululu Social Investments. To read the full report discussed in this article, visit the CDE’s website.