EDITORIAL | Paying consultants millions to teach maths and science doesn’t add up

Already drowning in its own ineptness, the Eastern Cape education department seems hell-bent on throwing money down the drain.

How else can it explain outsourcing the after-hour teaching of almost all grade 12 subjects to private companies at a cost of hundreds of millions of rand — while there is an option to do it more cheaply in-house?

The provincial education department is not offering an explanation, citing “this will be an infringement of the service providers’ rights in terms of Popia (Protection of Personal Information Act)”, according to spokesperson Mali Mtima.

This, he said, was on the advice of its legal services department, when Sunday Times Daily asked for a response about service provider Jenn Training which got paid hundreds of millions of rand.

The cash-strapped education department paid Jenn Training and Consultancy R224.2m last year for “the provision of intensive support to pupils from underperforming schools”.

It also paid R18.6m over the same period to another company, Maths and Science Infinity, which is assisting 60 schools this year to improve pupils’ maths and science performance.

Contracting service providers to assist underperforming schools and provide extra-tuition for maths and science pupils was fruitless expenditure.

—  Naptosa Eastern Cape CEO, Loyiso Mbinda

Add to that the R3.8m to five Cuban specialists who assisted the training of 148 maths and 149 physical science teachers from underperforming schools, and Khumzi Investments’ almost R40m in April last year, including R17.7m for training courses and R22.1m for accommodation.

Now teachers’ union Naptosa is saying that using a middleman to hire mostly government-employed teachers to tutor pupils on Saturdays and holidays is wastage, since the department could have paid these teachers directly.

The provincial CEO for Naptosa in the Eastern Cape, Loyiso Mbinda, said contracting service providers to assist underperforming schools and provide extra tuition for maths and science pupils was “fruitless expenditure” since the same function of assisting teachers could be done by subject advisers at no extra cost.

“We also have the Eastern Cape Professional Development Institute to sharpen the skills of teachers.”

While the service providers maintain they add a valuable service, the Eastern Cape education department should maybe sign up for some of those extra maths classes they pay so dearly for. Because somehow what is happening in the department does not add up.

Copying from another’s homework is never condoned, but in this case, to help the provincial department, we suggest it takes a peek at the worksheet of the North West, Northern Cape, Mpumalanga, Limpopo and Western Cape education departments, which confirmed they did not outsource the teaching of school subjects to external service providers.

With the money saved on paying a middleman, the department could perhaps sort out the provision of teachers. Three schools, Michausdal Senior Secondary, Humansdorp Secondary and Jeffreys Bay Comprehensive High, were closed down recently for a couple of days by parents and governing body members because of vacant teacher posts that had not been filled for months.

There were 1,879 vacant posts at Eastern Cape schools, including 568 principal, 99 deputy principal, 418 head of department and 794 teacher vacancies up until the end of March.

In April, Eastern Cape department of education head Naledi Mbude was suspended over the delay in delivering textbooks and the forfeiture of a R200m grant meant for school infrastructure.

If two and two don’t make four, go back to the drawing board.