Parents refuse to pay for teachers who don’t teach
School accused of victimising children
Parents at an Eastern Cape school say their children’s school reports are being withheld to punish them for refusing to pay for teachers who fail to teach.
Legally, a school is not allowed to victimise or suspend a student or withhold a school report if parents do not pay fees.
But some parents at Zigadini Junior Secondary School in Mount Frere say the school principal is holding their children back and refusing to hand out reports because of a dispute over payments for teachers. Zigadini Junior Secondary is a no-fee school.
The 27-year-old mother of a grade two student contacted GroundUp when her son was told to repeat the grade after she refused to pay for a teacher.
Gcobisa Fanaphi from Mount Frere Zigadini Location told GroundUp that her son had been told to repeat his grade until she paid money the school demanded. She said she had refused to pay for a teacher who had not even been to school to teach her child.
Fanaphi said early last year school principal Xoliswa Mtshayisa had told parents the school had hired two teachers to assist in grades two and three.
“As parents we were never consulted. They just told us: here are the teachers and you must pay them,” she said.
Fanaphi said parents had been told that families of grade two learners must pay R60 a month to cover the teachers’ pay.
She said she had paid the money for a few months but had stopped when the teacher left. Three other parents also claimed that the school principal had refused to give their children their results because of a dispute over the money.
One parent who did not to be named for fear that her child would be victimised said she had had to borrow money.
“I’m not working. I depend on a child support grant. That R60 is too much for some of us,” said the mother.
“None of us as parents suggested that the school should hire new teachers. When one teacher left I thought the school was going to decrease the money but they did not.”
Eastern Cape Department of Education spokesperson Mtima Mali said students could not be deprived of their right to participate in all aspects of the programme of a public school if the parents did not pay school fees. Students could not be victimised, suspended from classes, denied school reports or transfer certificates, or denied access to the school’s cultural, sporting or social activities.
Another mother who also asked not to be named said: “Most of us depend on piece jobs just to put something on the table, and we are single parents. After we failed to pay the grade three teacher last year, the principal said those teachers were not going to come back, but one is still here, and we do not know how much we are to be forced to pay her this year,” she said.
“I don’t think it’s fair to be forced to pay for the teachers because this is a no-fee school,” she said.
Attempts to get comment from Mtshayisa were unsuccessful. She did not respond to text messages.
© 2016 GroundUp. 
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