The Department of Education is looking to regulate the responsibilities of senior teaching staff during strikes, says Education Minister Naledi Pandor.
”Currently, I have no plans to declare teaching an essential service,” she said in written reply to a question in the National Council of Provinces by Motlatjo Thetjeng of the Democratic Alliance.
However, there were plans in the future to regulate the responsibilities of the education management service — office-based educators and managers as well as school-based principals and deputy principals — during strike action, she said.
This was in line with the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) declaration on ”Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work”.
The declaration stated that ”if the collective bargaining system does not produce an acceptable result and strike action is taken, certain limited categories of workers can be excluded from such action to ensure the basic safety of the population [in this case the learners] and to ensure the continuous essential functioning of the state”.
”In future, education management personnel will be required to sign performance agreements and it is envisaged that part of their key performance objectives should include the management of the effects of strike action,” Pandor said.
This would entail keeping records of all educators on strike, ensuring safety at schools, managing and reporting on the impact of the strike on teaching and learning and assisting with any recovery plans.
The department was also preparing policy and guidelines on what schools should do during strike action.
This would include directions in relation to the right to learning, the right to strike, the responsibilities of management and teachers before and during strike action and rules that would apply during strike action.
It would also include procedures relating to instances where educators claimed to have been intimidated during strike action, and implementation of a ”no work, no pay” system — as well as procedures on how to ensure that schools were safe during strike action, including emergency measures required to safeguard learners, non-striking teachers and property, she said.
Shortage being addressed
Meanwhile, the current shortage of maths and science teachers is being addressed without the need to re-open teacher training colleges, Pandor also said on Tuesday.
She said a 1999 audit of teacher education found that the majority of Colleges of Education were not effective in preparing teachers.
Therefore, all teacher training was now conducted by universities and universities of technology.
Thetjeng wanted to know whether, in light of the fact that there was a shortage of teachers for mathematics, science and commerce, the department was planning to open training colleges in these specific fields.
Pandor said 22 institutions currently offered a comprehensive range of initial teacher-education programmes.
Enrolment in 2007 was double that of 2006, and there was further capacity in these institutions to increase enrolment to meet projected needs.
Apart from R700-million set aside over the current medium-term expenditure framework for initial teacher-education bursaries, the department had sponsored 1 302 in-service teachers to complete an Advanced Certificate in Maths, Science and Technology.
A further 2 000 teachers would receive similar bursaries in 2008, she said. — Sapa