To improve education, SADTU must match its words with its deeds

Any discussion on education in South Africa inevitably begins with a litany of its failings. These collectively constitute an "education crisis".

Like most truths that are repeated often enough, this litany has turned into political cliché and lost the power to shock.

That is why the new angle, in a speech by Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshekga this week, got people listening again.

She denied there was a crisis in education as a whole: "It is the education of an African child that is in crisis. The education of children in other communities still remains quite good."

This statement has evoked much tweeting and blogging.  My own response is this: If the education of the "African child" is in crisis, it is a crisis for everyone.  "African" children constitute the overwhelming majority of our young people who will shape our country's future and our place in the world.

Although I would take issue with the Minister's terminology (I believe white, coloured and Indian children are also African children), her statement is correct.

Any objective analysis of education statistics, demonstrates that if the "African Child" to whom she refers, is attending a school run by the former Department of Education and Training (otherwise known as ex-DET schools), they are falling way behind.  The "African child" who attends a former "model C" school achieves grades that are comparable with pupils in any other category.  And in a recent study of matric pupils studying higher grade mathematics, there was virtually no difference between the "African child" in former "model C" schools and other children in those schools. But there was a 40% point difference between African children in former DET schools and those in former Model C schools.  This shows what we have always known. There is nothing inherently lacking in the "African child". But there is a very distinct problem with former DET schools.

An analysis of matric results tells the same story.  In the Western Cape, the matric pass rate in former DET schools in 2009 was 49%. The overall average pass rate in the Province was 75%. This stark divergence does not emerge slowly over 12 years of schooling. It is already there from the start. At the end of grade 3, most children in ex DET schools do not meet the most basic foundation-phase literacy and numeracy targets. And the switch to mother tongue in the foundation phase has not improved matters.

In the Western Cape Education Department, we are currently undertaking in-depth research on the barriers to learning in these schools, including the role played by language. There have been too many simplistic diagnoses and misdirected "solutions" that have made no difference to the capacity of schools to perform their basic functions: teaching children how to read, write, calculate and to think.

There are many contributing factors. We have to understand how these factors interact in a way that results in the consistent failure of these schools to improve their performance, despite the massive redistribution of resources to them over the past 15 years. In fact the resources allocated to teachers in these schools has increased 30% during this period without any tangible improvements, and in some cases actual decline. Increased resources have not translated into better outcomes. We have to find out why.

There can be no doubt that an important factor is the quality of teaching.

There have been several major studies on this in the past which consistently demonstrate that in failing schools, teachers often do not have the subject content knowledge required of them. One of the shocking statistics in the McKinsey Report concluded that only 33% of teachers teaching grades 4 - 7 in 1000 schools across four provinces were able to pass numeracy tests at the level that was expected of their pupils.

Increasing the number of weak teachers does nothing to improve the quality of education at these schools. After all, the additional 30% in teacher allocation in these schools has made no difference. Addressing the problem of quality will take a long time. We have to recruit excellent students into the teaching profession, train them well, encourage them to stay in South Africa and teach in the public school system. We have to find a way of making sure that every teacher appointed to a post is "fit for the purpose" of teaching the required subject. And we have to find ways of terminating the services of those who are not, and who do not improve despite additional training and support.

It is also a fact that most teachers in our failing schools are members of the South African Democratic Teachers' Union (SADTU). At other schools teachers tend, by and large, to belong to other unions such as the National Professional Teachers Organisation of South Africa (NAPTOSA) or the Suid-Afrikaanse Onderwysers Unie (SAOU).

One of the most important recent developments in education was the announcement two weeks ago that these three unions had agreed to sign an Accord with the national Department of Basic Education committing themselves to improving the quality of public schooling. This social contract, if it is translated into practice, could be a watershed in the long, uphill struggle to improve education.

We strongly support this social contract, and will do all we can to help meet the quid-pro-quo required from the state, by providing the required facilities, learning resources, and support. We take the unions, and particularly SADTU, at their word when they say they are committed to improving the quality of public education.

That is why it came as such a shock to learn that, since this announcement, SADTU has made a move to establish itself as the only recognized union in the teaching sector. In effect, SADTU is seeking to remove the access of the two other unions (SAOU and NAPTOSA) to the collective bargaining process. This will effectively kill off SADTU's competitors.

SADTU's sleight of hand has come in a letter addressed to the Education Labour Relations Council, in which SADTU promotes the concept of "one union for one industry". It proposes to achieve this for the teaching profession by increasing the membership threshold for a union to gain access to the bargaining Council from the present 50,000 members to 100,000 members. This would exclude every union except SADTU. And SADTU knows that no teacher will want to belong to a union that cannot negotiate on their behalf.

It is difficult to understand that SADTU members can seriously commit themselves to improving the quality of education one day, and submit this proposal to the Education Labour Relations Council the next. Given that it has done so, SADTU should not be too surprised if people begin to question the genuineness of its commitment to improving the quality of education.

After all, according to the independent Tokiso Review, 42% of all work days lost due to strike action across the economy between 1995-2009 were attributable to SADTU. That is the most shocking statistic in the new South Africa because it demonstrates how much SADTU is prepared to sacrifice the future of what Minister Motshekga calls the "African child" in order to advance their own interests. In this context it is hardly surprising that education for these children is facing such a grave crisis.

Surely SADTU can see what damage their proposal would do to the public education sector? SADTU must recognize that, as a consequence of their actions over the past 15 years, and the results of the children they teach, they have lost the public's confidence when it comes to providing quality education. Indeed, they have lost the confidence of their own members. That is why SADTU members generally do whatever they can to send their own children to schools with the fewest possible number of SADTU teachers.

SADTU must take responsibility for turning this perception around. We are prepared to help them. But this will require taking joint responsibility for improving the quality of education in dysfunctional schools, not destroying those that work.  Instead of continuing its attack on quality education, and the teachers who provide it, let us take joint responsibility for extending the quality that exists into every school in the country.  We are ready to work together with SADTU. We look forward to their reciprocation.

This article by Helen Zille first appeared in SA Today, the weekly online newsletter of the leader of the Democratic Alliance, February 28 2010

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