The MEC for Education in Gauteng, Mr Panyaza Lesufihas urged parents to elect new members of the School Governing Bodies based on the interests of the learners.
“We call on parents to select the best candidates among those who will be nominated. What we know is that schools perform better where parents participate in the affairs of the school and take charge of the education of their children,” said Lesufi.
Parents and guardians of learners in Gauteng will, between 15 March and 30 April 2021, take to the polls to elect new members of the SGBs.
Lesufi said parents must ensure the elected SGB are capacitated with the correct skills to help principals run their schools.
“The new SGB must work with the Department to create an environment where Gauteng children are able to receive quality education, whether at school or at home. We would be looking to work with the SGBs on three key areas, including infrastructure; Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and human capacity,” said Lesufi.
He said that schools will be relying more on the use of ICT as they try to find a balance between the provision of quality education and protecting and saving the lives of learners and teaching staff at schools.
“As we meet now; we can no longer meet as we used to. We are now compelled to use gadgets and connectivity. In using ICT, we may regress in terms if accessibility; we may regress because of excluding other people purely because they don’t have access to those resources. But now education must take place, even when learners or educators are at home. We have no choice, then to invest heavily in ICT to ensure that we provide learners and teachers with the support they need for teaching and learning to continue during this pandemic,” he added.
The new members will take over once the elections have been declared free and fair at the end of the process.
