Abstract
M.Comm.
The objective of this essay was to examine the cost implication of parents and the
governing bodies of Model C-schools in the Witbank education region since the
implementation of these schools in 1992. The be Lange commission's report in the
late 1980's focused the attention pertinently on the great financial problems faced
by the educational authorities and parents in their endeavour to obtain a high
standard of education and training for the millions of children of school going age
and the need to establish parity throughout the education system on the level
enjoyed by the white pupils. Attaining these two objectives would have placed an
excessive burden on the Treasury and the economy in general. A new system of
education was therefore needed in which parents, as stakeholders, would share the
financial burden even more fully than had been the case as tax payers. The
concept of the Model C-schools was original accepted with mixed feelings by the -
-xparents
of the white pupils, considering the fact that, firstly, they had been
entitled to relatively free education for a long time, and secondly, the fact that
the Treasury was mainly funded by the white tax payer.
In the Witbank region, it is estimated that the school fees involved in having a
child in a Model C-school caused a ± five percent increase in gross household
expenses. In 1994 the Treasury benefited ± R 192 per scholar in the Witbank
education region as a result of the introduction of the Model C-schools.
The closure and phasing out of the Model C-schools, as announced by the Minister
of Education, will not only increase the financial burden of the Treasury, but it will
compel parents to send their children to private schools, which are considerably
more expensive than Model C-schools. The concept of private schools would seem
to be the only alternative available to parents to ensure a high standard of
education for their children.