Government needs private school lessons

Accountability is the most important lesson the government can learn from private schools.

The more than 10 000 candidates from 185 private schools who wrote the Independent Examinations Board National Senior Certificate exams last year achieved a 98.56% pass rate - but public schools could manage only 78,2%.

Education specialists tend to agree that strong accountability at private schools sets them apart.

Paul Joubert, senior researcher at the Solidarity Research Institute, said that when parents were not satisfied with the standard of education at a private school they took their money elsewhere.

"The head of the school might lose his job," said Joubert.

Though the government spent hugely on education, higher spending was counterproductive if the funds continued to go to dysfunctional schools, he said.

Nic Spaull, education researcher in the economics department at Stellenbosch University, said private schools had low teacher absenteeism, and higher teacher quality and parental involvement.

"The parents of the average child at a private school are considerably wealthier than those of the average child in a public school, and private school pupils have educational advantages while growing up."

Robert Prince, head of the academic development programme at the University of Cape Town, said it was possible for public schools to "even exceed" the results of private schools if there were "a serious commitment by all concerned".