Thuthuka Maseko presents alternatives to redeployment for teachers
The Department of Education should start looking at its redeployment and retrenchment policy, as it is not only an inconvenience to teachers, but also to their families. It has been estimated that only 5% of people can handle the shock of retrenchment without some form of assistance. Retrenchment is a threat to one’s existing lifestyle, as it affects one financially and otherwise.
Recently graduated teachers have, in some cases, been unemployed for up to five years since graduation. Some of these graduates have taken out loans to study and are now unable to repay them.
The Department of Education houses other professions, which include human resource management, customer care, accounting, as well as administrative and communication posts among others. Unemployed teaching graduates and employed teachers have often taken other courses, other than those relating to teaching. Teachers are not financially rewarded for such qualifications, as they are deemed irrelevant to the profession and because of that teachers often do not declare their qualifications to the department. The department should take cognisance of multi-skilling in teachers and should not regard them all as “mere” teachers. Such acknowledgement will extend the role played by teachers within the department and mean that they will not be disposed of once their services are not needed in schools. The department can deploy those teachers to other posts within the department. A database of multi-skilled teachers, both employed and unemployed, should be set up.
Globally there has been a shift from an old economy to a new one where it does not matter what facts people know — the focus is on what they can do. This new economy has been characterised by the emergence of “global” bosses. Principals and heads of department should be multi-skilled in order to lead effectively in schools. Gone are the days where principals had the single skill of being just a teacher. School principals must now have management skills. Education, like business, has been influenced by technological changes, demographic changes and, more especially in South Africa, political change. These changes have influenced the teacher make-up.
It is in this light that I stress the importance of multi-skilling within the teaching profession. If the teachers run short of these skills, our education will reach a crisis characterised by non-delivery. As a director of Empowa, a transformation and training consultancy, put it, the skills needed to be an effective leader in South Africa today are different from the skills needed a few years ago. To be relevant, to make a difference and to add value to your own life and that of your organisation requires a new set of qualities. Teachers’ skills — information and knowledge — are in a constant state of decay, to alleviate this teachers have to learn a variety of skills.
This culture of multi-skilling will help schools to reach their desired goal. This multi-skilling programme in teaching will not only empower and provide alternate jobs for teachers, but also transfer multi-skilling qualities to pupils — a plus for the South African economy.
— The Teacher/Mail & Guardian, February, 2001.