Slow progress in clarifying key points related to the occupation-specific dispensation (OSD) for the teaching profession is causing frustration among educators and fuelling fears that this might lead to strike action within the already embattled sector.
Following the resumption of talks on June 17 teacher unions have expressed concern about unresolved matters, warning that negotiations are heading for deadlock.
According to teacher unions the key deal breakers, on which little progress has been made, are the inclusion of learner achievement and external moderation as part of the assessment of teachers’ performance and a new set of promotion criteria, which teachers have to satisfy before qualifying for senior posts, such as head of department, deputy-principal and principal.
Last year the department of education and teachers’ unions signed what was hailed as a ground breaking framework to pave the way for a series of negotiations to address outstanding issues related to the OSD.
The tangible outcome of the agreement was a salary increase of between 4% and 9% to teachers, backdated to January 2008. But since then there has been little movement on other outstanding issues and neither the unions nor the department are prepared to take flak for the delay.
Teachers’ unions attribute the lack of progress to the complexity of issues involved. They said they want to engage further with the education department through the education bargaining chamber to thrash out the issues they consider problematic.
“On the face of it the framework looks good, but when you look at it holistically there are lot of problem areas,” said Alan Thompson of the National Teachers’ Union (Natu).
Thulas Nxesi, of the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) said the delay “has to do with the time needed to unpack a lot of issues involved”.
Said Nxesi: “For us the OSD represents a restructuring of the entire education system and cannot be reduced just to salary re-structuring.”
He said the signing of the OSD agreement heralded the beginning of a long bargaining process between the unions and the education department.
Nxesi said one of the key concerns is the linking of learner performance with teacher assessment by the department. He said this “disregards issues of resources and economic conditions that prevail in most rural schools and tends to put the blame on the teacher alone”.
The main problem for Natu relates to the new requirements that the department has introduced for teachers to qualify for certain positions and get promoted. He said these create serious barriers and limit teachers’ chances of moving up the career ladder.
For instance, said Thompson, to become head of department a teacher needed matric plus three years’ teaching experience (M+3). Under the new requirements a teacher needs matric plus four years’ training (M+4) and a postgraduate qualification in one of the subjects he or she wants to head.
The National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa (Napotsa) also raised objections. Naptosa said in its newsletter: “There are proposals in the OSD policy that we believe will simply not work and others where some educators may be disadvantaged for years to come.”
Naptosa wants the department to clarify the draft guidelines relating to procedures for filling teaching and learning specialist positions, the instrument that will be used to moderate performance of teachers, performance standards and the integrated quality management system.
The union said it would not like to see a unilateral implementation of the OSD without further engagement on submissions.
The Suid-Afrikaanse Onderwysersunie (South African Teachers’ Union (Saou)) said the lack of progress on the part of the department of education remains a serious stumbling block in the negotiations.
Saou said the department must clarify the requirements related to the following: a post level one before it can be upgraded, failure to make progress on a scientific job evaluation of office-based educators, the proposal by the department that the minister alone should determine additional qualifications instead of collective negotiations, lack of progress in addressing the plight of psychologists and therapists and coming up with proposals to deal with the principle of retaining qualified and experienced teachers.
According to the education department, the outstanding issues revolve around:
- The refusal of teacher unions to include learner performance as an instrument to measure teacher performance;
- The finalisation of a specialist teacher category in which teachers will be remunerated based on their qualifications and performance;
- Management competence and qualifications for principals posts, bringing the payment of pay progression forward to July 2009;
- The implementation of pay progression and accelerated pay progression to be implemented in 2010 and 2011; and
- The finalisation of measures relating to the upgrade of the qualifications of under-qualified educators through further studies and the recognition of prior learning.