Schools urged to share best practices
ALEXANDRA - Alex schools have been encouraged to share best practices than compete in order to help improve the performance of children.
According to Milton Buthelezi, Alex and Joburg regional chairperson of the National Association of School Governing Bodies, Alex schools are encouraged to share best practices rather than compete in order to help improve the performance of pupils.
This was said as schools opened for this academic year amid challenges including overcrowding and problems gaining entrance into schools.
Buthelezi said schools have an obligation to provide quality education and one option would be to encourage them not to compete with each other, but to share good teaching methods and possibly teachers. “They should share the best teachers who parents should pay for, for weekend tutorials for their children,” said Buthelezi. This, he said, would complement the department of education’s pilot of pairing poorly resourced local schools with better ones from affluent areas.
Buthelezi also urged local businesses and large companies in surrounding industrial areas to support schools with substantive and not once-off contributions. This he said in reference to Tiger Brands which contributed a feeding scheme through containers based at the schools. “The feeding complements education through daily nutritional support essential for all children rather than the once-off food contributions companies donate on national days. I encourage the companies to do this by adopting local schools for long-term support.”
He added that this would also assist the province, in particular, Alex, which is under pressure for school enrolment by migrant children from Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and other countries with their parents lured to Joburg for a better life.
“Without additional infrastructural developments, this causes overcrowding in classrooms and compromises the quality of education. Companies and organisations should sponsor nutrition, tutorial and infrastructure development and other teaching support programmes, and not only profit from the local economy,” he said
Buthelezi also challenged local leaders to develop an interest in children’s education. “They, particularly Alex-born children, need role models to help them develop an interest in education, unlike migrant children who seem self-motivated.” Buthelezi attributed this partly to school governing bodies he said reneged on their roles of monitoring the delivery on substantive education and in seeking partners for the schools.
He further urged teachers to spend more time in classrooms than staff rooms and thanked them for remaining in township schools.
