Marca Personal o Personal Branding

First, I have realised that the instability that exists in many of these schools is caused by the contravention of section 195 (1) (a) of the Constitution because some principals deliberately hide valuable information in the form of departmental circulars and resolutions from stakeholders with the intention of manipulating and dominating them (cf.paragraph2.6.1).

Even though they are professionals in schools, but they fail to promote the standard of professional ethics. Rogue elements in unions like SADTU also violate the code of professional ethics when they sell posts, assault, intimidate and kill some principals (cf.paragraph2.6.4). It is very unethical to have situations where some teachers and some bad senior government officials are known to have sexual relationships with small girls (Mothombeni)151.

Second, the perennial shortage of textbooks in most of the secondary schools at townships in Free State is regarded as highly unethical because other children in the country have textbooks. But it shows the manner in which both principals and DBE are failing to ensure that there are efficient, economic, and effective uses of resources such as money within the schools (cf.section195 (1) (b)).

The funds that are allocated to each school are also meant for purchasing LTSM. Unfortunately many principals and their SGBs have other agendas for that money. It

is very likely that you will find thousands of rands being spent on items such as curtains for the staff room, CCTV cameras for each classroom, carports for teachers and for paving school grounds whereas poor children lack textbooks.

Hence some of it gets stolen (cf.paragraph2.6.3). I know that it has been for many years now that most of the grades 8 and 9 learners have been without textbooks for many years. These are classes where a good foundation for good results is supposed to be laid. How on earth could schools be able to accomplish this if children have no LTSM? Taylor (2008:19) affirms this statement by saying that textbooks contain a study program for the academic year where in concepts, definitions, and symbols are explained, and even problems are worked out. Therefore their shortages add to the problem of English proficiency by both teachers and learners (cf.paragraph2.7).

Third, section 195 (1) (d) of the Constitution provides that services must be provided impartially, fairly, equitably, and without bias. The problem is that the service providers such as the municipality have a tendency of stopping services to schools when there are problems. For example, in 2015 the Matjhabeng Municipality decided to cut water supply to schools which did not pay their accounts (cf.paragraph2.2.23.2).

I view this as an unfair treatment to poor children who knew nothing about that problem. Remember that many of them are coming from poor families where they do not have access to flushing toilet systems. Their hope is to get fresh water at school and to also relieve themselves in the school toilets. In addition section 195 (1) (f) was infringed by both the SGBs and principals of defaulting schools because they could have realized that failure to pay accounts will lead to the suspension of services to the school.

In my view, this impasse has led to many children not completing syllabi. This is because they were released before the end of the school day for a certain period of time. The results of the matriculants were therefore negatively affected. This is another proof that there are serious problems in the management of organisational systems in many townships schools across Free State.

Fourth, the needs of many learners in most of the secondary schools at townships in Free State cannot be met. There is evidence that many schools do not have textbooks for learners, are not safe due to poor sanitation, no perimeter fence, and

they also have experienced water cuts by uncaring municipalities (cf.paragraphs2.2.3.2; 2.2.2.1.2 & 2.2.2.3.2). Therefore their needs were not responded to by neither the SGB nor the state (cf.section195 (1) (e) of the Constitution).

Section 195 (1) (g) promulgates that public, in this instance the school, should provide and should also be provided with timely, accessible and accurate information. This section was violated by the school when it failed to inform parents that their children will be in danger if they come to school when there was no water. Squarely, the Matjhabeng Municipality has failed to inform both the schools and their communities that the water supply will be stopped due to non-payment by both schools and the state.

Therefore there was no transparency from both parties and poor black children became victims of poor management of organisational systems again. They were once more forced to inhabit schools where sanitation was poor. Maybe some of them contracted contagious diseases from unhealthy toilets.

Lastly, it has been proven that many teachers in South Africa, particularly those employed in township schools are inadequately trained. Initially they received an inferior training during apartheid (cf.paragraph2.7.1) and today their main problem is that they lack good English proficiency, have poor reading skills and have poor subject content knowledge as well as insufficient pedagogical knowledge152. This means that both the SGBs and the DBE cannot fulfil the prescripts of section 195 (1) (i) because most of the secondary schools at townships in Free State are in the hands of principals, SMTs and teachers who are not objective enough to make their schools ideal institutions of learning. Their inabilities in almost all spheres within their institutions make it more challenging for these schools to address the imbalances of the past. For example, during apartheid black schools were not enough for the then population hence there was overcrowding.

But today that problem still exists even though there are many schools in all the townships. Shirley Wakefield affirms by saying that South African learners want a good education, but they feel that they cannot have access to it due to problems of

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overcrowding and shortage of textbooks153. There are also shortages of library books, laboratory material and even desks and chairs for both learners and teachers. The infringement of the Constitution cannot be limited to what is discussed above, but it is also imperative for me to highlight the violations of subordinate education laws of the Constitution.