SADTU 2011 END OF YEAR STATEMENT
29 December 2011.
A long road ahead for 2012
As we come to the end of 2011, we reflect on the programmes, issues and events that shaped the year. 2011 saw the introduction of many changes on the education front - more especially in basic education.
The introduction of ANA, CAPS and PANAs set the tone for the year as education stakeholders and the public in general realised how bad the situation was in education when we were confronted with appalling results.
For the successful implementation of these changes, we need properly trained and developed teachers. As SADTU we again raised our voice and reiterated our call for professional development to train quality teachers to deliver quality public education. We continue to call for the reopening of teacher colleges in order to train more teachers and therefore curb teacher shortage.
Therefore, we will in 2012 engage with both the Ministers and Department of Basic Education and Higher Education and Training to speedily implement the agreed upon national strategy for teacher development. We have also redoubled our commitment to get into operation our institute for professional development to provide quality training programmes for teachers and education workers in fulfilling our historic mission to create a new teacher and a new education worker to build Socialism in line with our 2010 National Congress theme: "Organise and Empower Education Workers to Deliver Free Quality Public Education and Build Socialism".
Lack of progress in bringing parity between teachers and other public servants with regard to progression where teachers still qualify for 1% whilst the rest of the public service qualify for 1,5% remains a challenge. The situation is further worsened by the lack of progress on the salary structure negotiations which should be a priority for 2012.
We also note that the issue of temporary teachers in the Eastern Cape has still not been resolved. We call for a speedy resolution to the crisis so that it does not affect the 2012 school calendar.
In March 2012, we are going to host a Policy Conference on Labour and Education where we are going to look at all policies and programmes and the impact they have on our historic mission to achieving "Peoples' Education for the Peoples' Power. Some of the policies that will be discussed include, the Teacher Performance Appraisal system, the remuneration policy in the entire public service but with a focus on the teaching personnel in order to retain the experienced teachers who leave the system for greener pastures. We will also interrogate the application and implementation of the Commonwealth teacher recruitment protocol.
Initiatives to adopt poor performing schools have gained momentum as NEDLAC, COSATU and private businesses committed themselves to the programme. We also commit ourselves to this programme in order to have all our schools performing better in 2012 and beyond.
Another challenge we confronted in 2011 was the rise in learner pregnancy and sexual relationships between the learners and teachers. We are totally against such conduct by our members. We are also going to work closely with COSAS to ensure that the education of learners is not jeopardised by these acts.
Some of the year's highlights for SADTU included our successful co-hosting of the Global Congress of Education International (EI) on our shores in Cape Town in July. EI - a global teacher union federation - represents close to 30 million teachers and education workers globally. Held under the theme, "Building the future through Quality Education" the Congress attracted more than a thousand delegates who deliberated on crucial education matters on a global scale.
One of the main resolutions adopted was EI's education policy underpinned by concepts which include promoting education as a human right and a public good; improving the quality of education, promoting equality through inclusive education; promoting teaching as a profession; promoting education trade unions as partners in civil society; promoting solidarity in education at an international level; using technology for quality education and promoting education for Living and for Life.
Another highlight was the adoption of the 2030 Vision at our National General Council meeting held in November. The Vision was first presented at our National Congress in 2010 as a discussion document. The Vision calls upon the Union to:
- Service members by continuously redefining the teacher conditions of service to be commensurate with the inflationary realities of the society we operate within which will be based on extensive research on appropriate conditions of service for a teacher in a developmental state,
- Create a learning nation by improving the quality of the teaching process fully aware of the devastating legacy of apartheid teacher training based on class, gender and race.
- Promote a developmental oriented nation state by reorienting membership to focus on national development objectives through learning content delivered to those entrusted to our care and creating a patriotic cadre of teachers and education workers and learners through socially cohesive programmes.
- Build a delivery based organizational capacity by creating a SADTU Village that promotes organizational excellence in all fields of required management and creating an organizer capacity that sustains current membership levels and increase them to above 70% of the total teacher and education workers population in the country by the next national general council in 2012.
- Create international partnership by promoting international solidarity programmes that are based on SADTU core belief system
We adopted the 2030 Vision to anchor the locus of our political programme which is still the abolishment of class, race and patriachical relations of power as interrelated antagonistic social contradiction. This abolishment is further informed by our resolve to underwrite any policy that strives to realize:
- a united state based on the will of all the people, without regard to race, sex, belief, language, ethnicity or geographic location,
- a dignified and improved quality of life among all the people by providing equal rights and opportunities to all citizens;
- the restoration of the birthright of all south Africans regarding access to land and other resources;
- a society based on the best in human civilization in terms of political and human freedoms, socio-economic rights, value system and identity
With this 2030 Vision SADTU seeks to be a force that contributes towards the creation of an education system that is able to eliminate the main features of the apartheid education system. Such eliminations should be organic and sensitive to the originative historical environment that templates South African education provision.
The wellbeing of our members is a matter of huge concern. We are aware that teachers continue to be affected and infected by HIV and AIDS
Funding for the our Palliative Prevention Care for Teachers and -Orphaned and Vulnerable Children (PPCT-OVC) programme which has improved the well being of our members affected by HIV/AIDS will come to an end in September 2012. The programmers have been running for four years.
Thousands of our members have received free treatment, testing and counseling for HIV and lifestyle diseases, workshops on gender relations have taken place and peer support groups have been established through the programme. Thousands of orphaned and vulnerable children are receiving uniforms, toiletries and life skills training and support in schools rendered by our members who become caregivers.
We are not going to fold our hands and watch such a valuable project fold but will endevour to, among others, create partnerships with the Department of Health (DoH) and Social Development and also engage and source funding from parastatals and donors to sustain the PPCT-OVC project post September 2012.
As an affiliate of COSATU and therefore a member of the Alliance, 2012 will be a crucial year as the ANC, COSATU and SACP hold their respective congresses.
Our contribution to these august events would be to strengthen the capacity of members by holding more political education classes to enable them to make objective, sound and politically informed contributions on policy deliberations leading up to the congresses.
We again extend our best wishes to the ANC on its centenary year in 2012. This indeed calls for celebrations and a reflection on the 100 years of this organization.
SADTU owes its being to the ANC. The ANC together with COSATU and other teacher unions in the continent worked hard towards the formation of SADTU. In April 1988 in Harare, Zimbabwe, AATO, WCOTP, ANC, SACTU and COSATU jointly convened a historic meeting which led to the birth of SADTU. At the launch of SADTU on October 6, 1990, world statesman and former President Nelson Mandela said the launch was a beacon of hope for South Africans."Hope that we are putting an end to Bantu education; hope that the aspirations of teachers shall now be represented by a single, resonant voice, hope that we are laying a firm basis for a single, democratic education system," Madiba said.
As a contribution to centenary celebrations, SADTU will adopt a programme through which all structures will be mobilized and resourced with specific timelines in order to contribute to the achievement of the ANC Centenary recruitment target of 1 million members. Our members will participate massively and the union will be highly visible in the Jan 8th Centenary celebrations.
We wish the 2011 Matric Class all the best as they anxiously await the results. Our members did their best to ensure an improved result from 2010's 67% with SADTU in KwaZulu Natal taking the lead in printing and distributing thousands of revision booklets to assist matriculants. We call upon all the people of our country to join hands with our hard working teachers to improve the quality of education in 2012. We all have a responsibility to make The Quality Learning and Teaching Campaign (QLTC) a success.
Statement issued by SADTU General Secretary, Mugwena Maluleke, December 29 2012
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