/ 6 October 2008

Who should teach the teachers?

Thabo Mohlala challenges Sadtu boss Thulas Nxesi on perceptions that the union shields its members at the expense of education.

The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) has objected to the National Education Evaluation and Development Unit, a new school inspection body due to start operating next year.

Why is Sadtu so fiercely opposed to reviving the school inspectorate?
I told a [Sadtu] conference in Limpopo we support this thing because we believe it’s central to accountability and quality. But it must go hand in hand with training and support — the thinking should not be to bring back the old system of inspectors. To do what? Walk around the schools not knowing what they’re doing? How can somebody who doesn’t understand the new curriculum evaluate me? Where have they been trained?

Inspectors don’t know what they’re doing. In the past they were imposed by the department, with an emphasis on discipline and very little support for teachers.

So what do you propose?
What matters most is evaluation, monitoring and support. You evaluate a teacher to identify weaknesses, set up a programme to address that and monitor how the programme assists them. At the end, you undertake a second assessment specifically in relation to reward. Our proposal is based on the development appraisal system [DAS] we developed in the 1990s with the Wits education policy unit.

How would it work?
We want inspectors to do things by agreement [with labour]. We want them to give pedagogical support, which can be given only by somebody who is a specialist in a particular subject.

Don’t inspectors allow the education authorities to make timely interventions?
The issue is the type of tool which can easily be subjective and used against people. We aren’t against members being evaluated, but the process should be meticulous and objective.

There’s a perception that Sadtu always objects to initiatives aimed at strengthening our education system to shield its members from being accountable …

There can be no job without supervision or evaluation. Our objection is that over 10 years teachers have been exposed to three different systems: DAS, which was thrown out; Kader Asmal’s Whole School Evaluation, also discarded; and the Integrated Quality Management System, negotiated with unions. Now there’s talk about the National Education Evaluation and Development Unit. Teachers are already suffering under policy overload and battling with the new curriculum. When will they have time to master all these things? There doesn’t seem to be consistency. It’s confusing.

Sadtu in Soweto threatened to disrupt or physically remove members from after-hours training workshops. Isn’t that another case of teachers’ interests coming first?
That came about because of a dispute — there was a misunderstanding. The thing is: years after democracy there’s no teacher development strategy. Training raises fundamental questions: are they going to talk about evening classes or weekends or sacrificing holidays? How does one reconcile these issues with conditions of service? The payment of a stipend must be discussed between the employer and the organised profession. We need to talk about compensation if teachers opt to forfeit holidays. We’re prepared to compromise on this.

Why pay them when training benefits them?
You still need to have a discussion, like what time their training takes place, whether they should leave classrooms to attend training and how they get to training venues. There must be some formal agreement because these things touch on basic employment issues.

Your two-week strike last year resulted in costly catch-up programmes for matric learners, in particular.

We protect members but I don’t think it’s at the expense of education. The role of unions is to protect members’ interests – we’re not apologetic about that. We feel the department should share the blame, for example when officials don’t pay bus owners to ferry learners to schools and books are delivered late. If you want quality education you need a satisfied teaching force.

What do you think of Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi’s resignation as public service minister?
Good riddance. We had to deal with an arrogant person who didn’t help labour relations.

Haven’t you become arrogant and an obstacle to learning?
People don’t understand that the destruction of the culture of teaching took place over a long time. It’s going to take a concerted effort to bring it back. This is linked to the issue of violence in the townships and values in our society. Teachers are not given resources to deal with the children of this century. You are dealing with a deep-rooted crisis and to turn it around you need a coherent approach.