Education Minister Naledi Pandor and leaders of teachers’ unions will meet on Tuesday to discuss an education recovery plan designed to help pupils catch up on the 10 days of schooling missed during the recent public-sector strike.
Pandor spokesperson Lunga Ngqengelele said on Monday the National Professional Teachers’ Organisation (Naptosa) and the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) had been invited to the meeting at 9am in Pretoria.
Both unions said they will attend.
Dave Balt, president of Naptosa, said the union believes the recovery programme should be led by teachers, with pupils expected to ”put their heads down” to catch up.
Teachers from his organisation will not demand overtime should it become necessary.
”It’s part of our responsibilities,” he said.
Also expected to be discussed is a review of the results of the interrupted June examinations and a suggestion that they be scrapped, and the revision of the university entrance application cut-off date.
The national executive committee of Sadtu will also meet on Thursday to discuss proposals and get mandates from its members province-wide.
Meanwhile, provincial education departments are forging ahead with their own recovery plans.
Eastern Cape education spokesperson Mqkisi Ndara said the province will finalise its plans at a meeting on Wednesday but it has already secured an agreement that the Daily Dispatch and Herald newspapers will place learning materials in their publications for pupils to use.
The Gauteng education department started a special programme on Monday for schools considered vulnerable and in need of extra support, in addition to its usual winter school programme. These will run alongside the arrangements of individual schools in the province.
Department spokesperson Kate Baphela said the response has been good and that it is ”hectic” at all the learning centres.
It has brought in district managers and is also using internet based e-learning to help.
”It’s extremely good. Some centres are choc-a-block. It’s a good feeling. For a minute we were panicking, but it’s all green [for go] around Gauteng,” she said.
She appealed to parents of schoolchildren or neighbours who saw children who should be in the special catch up sessions to get them back into the classrooms.
”You must not let them run around the street,” she said.
Arrangements for KwaZulu-Natal will be announced later on Monday while Free State had decided to postpone mid-year exams until August.
The Western Cape’s plan includes keeping matriculants at school until the start of their final examinations, instead of the traditional week off before they start. — Sapa