DA calls on SADTU head to resign
The school that SADTU President Thobile Ntola is principal of has a pass rate of 29.3%. Given this abysmal pass rate, the DA calls on him to resign from his position at SADTU and devote himself to improving the education system at his own front door.
Chubekile Secondary School in the Eastern Cape produced 43 matric candidates for 2009 and only 12 of these learners passed. This is down from an 85% pass rate in 2005. Ntola is both principal and science teacher at the school.
The Democratic Alliance believes that Ntola needs to devote himself to the full time job that he is getting paid a salary by the state to do. The key role that the school principal plays in a school's success has been proved time and time again. Chubekile's dismal pass rate, well below the national average, is likely explained by the fact that Ntola has another full time job.
Furthermore, in January SADTU was one of the parties that committed itself to a social contract for improving education. If the organisation really wants to prove that it is committed to this campaign, then it should not tolerate as its head a man who's record represents the antithesis of quality education, and the organisation itself should be demanding his resignation.
SADTU's past record of defiance in the face of any attempt to instill an ethos of quality education in schools has been hampering education for decades, and none of the four education ministers we have had since the arrival of democracy in 1994 has been able to take on the union successfully.
The DA does not believe that SADTU is sincere in its commitment to the social contract to improve education, because within a month of signing this commitment it had already threatened to go on strike over a DA application to have teaching declared an essential service.
But Ntola could prove that SADTU really means what it says by stepping down. We look forward to his response.
Statement issued by James Lorimer, MP, Democratic Alliance deputy shadow minister of basic education, February 23 2010
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