Top facilities at a public price

FROM granite urinals, Kalahari sand tiles and an automatic flushing system in the boys' toilet to a unique exercising machine in the gym, Northcliff High School in Johannesburg is becoming the envy even of private schools.

Although it is a public school, its 1450 pupils all do physical training and have been enjoying the benefits of a Queenax - the only one of its kind in a South African school. The device allows them to jump, climb, swing, hang and do traction exercises.

Despite increasing its rates from R26500 to R28750 for next year, parents believe that it is still providing value for money.

The country's 3909 fee-paying public schools are holding annual meetings over the next few weeks to decide on tariff hikes for next year.

A random survey by the Sunday Times found that schools were expected to increase fees by between 8% and 9%. The schools that have already set fees for next year include:

• Westville Boys' High School: R31100 to R33850;
• Parktown High School for Girls: R24650 to R27000; and
• Jeppe High School for Boys: R28500 to R31200.

Some schools charge slightly more for Grade eight.

In comparison, tuition fees at St Johns College in Johannesburg, a private school, will be R105760 for tuition next year.

Figures from the Department of Basic Education's latest annual survey indicate that fee-paying public schools received R14-billion in fees in 2011, including R4-billion that was paid by parents in Gauteng. In contrast, private schools countrywide got fees of R7-billion.

Most top-end government schools said this week that although they were forced to increase fees, they were offering a world-class education.

Collectively, 90% of last year's matrics from Northcliff, Parktown Girls and Pretoria Boys in Gauteng, Westville Boys and Glenwood Boys' High School in KwaZulu-Natal, as well as Westerford High School and Rondebosch Boys' High School in the Western Cape, qualified for university admission.

Although most of these schools' annual budgets this year were, on average, between R20-million and R30-million, with the exception of Pretoria Boys' High, which was R50-million, some of them spent up to 70% of it on salaries for staff, including teachers. The long list of benefits enjoyed by pupils at most of these schools include:

Internet access, including Wi-Fi, and data projectors, laptops and desktops are standard equipment in classrooms;

• A variety of sports and extramural activities. Parktown Girls is starting an orchestra next year;
• Going on bush camps for up to three weeks to learn leadership skills;
• Ultramodern gyms as well as the provision of artificial turf hockey fields at a cost of millions of rands; and
• Class sizes of 30 or fewer pupils.

The principal of Northcliff High, Walter Essex-Clark, said 67% to 70% of the budget went towards teachers' salaries and other personnel costs, including topping up the salaries of key performers.

A total of 56 teachers are paid by the state and 30 are paid by the governing body. The school also hires about 25 university students as sports coaches.

At least R400000 was spent on iPads for teachers.

Pupils will be allowed to bring iPads to school from next year and will be able to view certain textbooks electronically.

Teachers at Northcliff High are required to dress formally and Essex-Clark wears an academic gown to assembly. "You have got to act and look like a professional ," he said.

The chairman of the school's governing body, Tim van de Velde, said the school's performance was measured by the number of university admissions.

The principal of Pretoria Boys' High, Tony Reeler, confirmed that 63% of the budget went towards personnel and teachers' salaries.

The school has 102 teachers, 46 of whom are employed by the governing body.

"I think we offer a world-class education. We hang on to old-fashioned values like manners and respect, but at the same time we've got to make sure what we are offering our kids is relevant."

One of the improvements this year was t he installation of an early-warning lightning detection system on the sports fields .

Class sizes were, on average, fewer than 30 pupils a class and between 97% and 98% of parents paid their school fees.

The chairman of the governing body at Parktown Girls, Cathi Albertyn, a professor of law at the University of the Witwatersrand, said the school was a community of teachers and girls who took care of each other.

"It's a sisterhood. The girls have a very strong sense of belonging and they forge very deep relationships with each other and also with the teachers," she said.

Wits declared Parktown Girls as its top feeder school last year after 120 pupils enrolled as first-year students. Twenty of them were admitted to the health sciences faculty.

In contrast, King David Linksfield, a private school, which was Wits's second top feeder school, had 90 first-year enrolments of whom 10 were in health sciences.

The principal of Westerford High, Rob le Roux, said additional classrooms and a large teaching venue were expected to be completed by the end of this year at a cost of R6.4-million.

Shaun Simpson, headmaster of Rondebosch Boys' High, said his school was the top academic public school in the Western Cape last year.

Paul Colditz, chief executive of the Federation of Governing Bodies of South African Schools, agreed that parents were getting value for money. "Public schools [that charge fees] are on par or even better than many independent schools."

govenderp@sundaytimes.co.za