DA challenges Sadtu to hold its teachers to assessment tests

4 February 2015

This week the Department of Basic Education (DBE) announced that no Grade 8 or 9 maths will be taught on a Monday to allow all maths teachers to attend intensive training at workshops.

The DA expressed numerous concerns about the Department's plan. In particular we believe that the instruction that no Grade 8 or 9 mathematics teachers should be at school on Mondays (or another day of a province's choosing) is an ill-conceived solution to a very worrying national problem of teacher non-performance.

The DA regards teacher training as essential and will continue to demand a properly conceived intervention.

South Africa's largest teacher union has agreed that training is necessary, and appears to have agreed that it should be carried out after hours. The union's statement included the comment: "Schools need to be effective every day. This plan of the department will solve one crisis by creating another crisis."

Sadtu has, however, been silent on the matter of assessments and support for those teachers who are found to have inadequate levels of knowledge.

The DBE intends to assess the knowledge of all teachers attending a training session on the relevant work to be covered in that session, and then repeat the assessment after each session to measure the impact of the training. Teachers achieving less than 80% in these tests will be identified for support. This requirement cannot be removed.

The DA therefore challenges SADTU to: 

1. Commit to training after hours, as part of personal development, and for the good of our country's learners, once a workable plan has been devised; and

2. Submit regular assessments that test the knowledge of member teachers in order to ensure their skills-gaps are addressed.

Sadtu has a long history of inhibiting teacher accountability. We hope that Sadtu takes this opportunity to show they are serious about improving education for our children.  We await SADTU's response with keen interest.

Statement issued by Annette Lovemore MP, DA Shadow Minister of Basic Education, February 4 2015

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