A major national education conference held by the country’s largest teachers’ union identified the same old problems. But actions being planned promise to make it more than just a talkshop, writes Julia Grey
Government and union leaders, academics, and educators from around the country gathered in their hundreds at the recent South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) conference to review the state of education in the country.
Held over five days in Gauteng, Sadtu’s national education policy conference was convened at a cost of around R3-million (paid for by the union and the Education Labour Relations Council). More than two-thirds of participants were classroom-based teachers, representing 515 Sadtu branches.
Speakers ranged from Sadtu president Willy Madisha and general secretary Thulas Nxesi; deputy Minister of Education Mosibudi Mangena and deputy director general Tami Mseleku; and Jonathan Jansen from the faculty of education at the University of Pretoria.
Not surprisingly, the general verdict on the state of the education system was, ”Yes, we’ve made huge progress in transforming the mess we inherited, but …”. Some, like Jansen, went as far as declaring government policies a failure. Said Jansen: ”It is now widely accepted that Curriculum 2005, rather than creating grounds for greater equality of opportunity among learners, actually retarded the progress of especially disadvantaged learners.”
Criticism was also levelled at education authorities who are increasingly opting to dictate policy changes to teachers instead of drawing them into the decision-making process. Nxesi accused the education department of dismissing teacher expertise in favour of ”a new dependence on academics and consultants”, giving the example of how ”teachers and their representatives were virtually excluded from the curriculum review process … We have to ask: who do they think is going to implement the new curriculum, if not teachers?”
Teacher development was one crucial area of concern. The Development Appraisal System (Das) appears to have petered out before it even began, apparently because addressing the professional shortcomings of teachers once they have been identified is easier said than done. The breakdown in this vital process of developing educators came in for some heated criticism. As one participant put it, ”If people are complaining that there are teachers who are not good enough, they had better put a system in place to develop them.”
In response, Sadtu has declared 2001 as ”The year of Das implementation” and has undertaken to ”campaign actively for the agreed appraisal system. In the meantime, [we undertake] to suspend the implementation of Whole School Evaluation, and to continue to conscientise and capacitate members around the principles and procedures of Das”. Other commitments include:
”As a priority, to campaign for equal access for all children to quality early childhood development”;
”To reject and resist unilateral impositions of policies which bear on educators and the education system”; and
”To develop and campaign for a funding system which promotes equity and distributes resources … in favour of disadvantaged schools.”
Sadtu representative Hassen Lorgat countered suggestions that this was just another talkshop by pointing out that the ”real value of this conference lies in having so many classroom-based teachers here who heard and participated in these debates. This cannot be anything but a genuine attempt to get a culture of learning, teaching and service back into schools.”
Another unique aspect of the conference was that, for the first time, ”the union makes commitments of what we ourselves will do. This is a departure from the past, when we would rather demand actions from the employer.”
Sadtu has undertaken to campaign to ensure that these concerns are reflected in the new national curriculum statement, and to develop detailed programmes and action plans to take further at its national general council meeting in June.
While some may have gone away feeling sobered by how grand plans can shrink in the plain light of day, there is no denying that the face of education has altered significantly since apartheid rule. Mangena put it this way: ”Our democratic state turned 7 on April 27. In school admission terms we are eligible to enter grade 1.”
It seems our education system is about to enter the foundation phase.
– The Teacher/M&G Media, May 2001.
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