School governing body elections can fix education

Helen Zille, Leader of the Democratic Alliance
27 February 2012



Helen Zille

This week, the third largest public elections kick off at every school across the country. Over five million parents will have the opportunity, between 1 – 23 March, to vote for the School Governing Body (SGB) at their child’s school.

Many South Africans may ask: What’s the big deal? Why are the SGB elections important?

The answer is this: Our country’s future depends on our ability to improve the quality of our children’s education. This requires an effective partnership between the education department, principals and teachers, and (crucially) parents and pupils. Each must understand their respective role, and fulfil it. Otherwise quality education for all will remain a pipedream, no matter how much money we pump into education.

School Governing Bodies are the nexus of effective partnerships in our schools. In particular the SGB empowers parents to become powerful players in the education of their children. When a school community elects committed, skilled parents to fulfil this role it makes an enormous difference to a school’s ethos and quality – and vice versa. Self-seeking parents who abuse the power of governing bodies for their own ends can inflict severe damage on a school. Click here to read more.