New Sadtu takes up Grade R case

Union demands jobs for 5000 teachers, not 1000

THE newly-elected Eastern Cape SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) executive is demanding that all qualified Grade R teachers in the province be permanently employed with full benefits immediately.

It forms part of a resolution taken at their provincial congress that ended last weekend in East London, said secretary Chris Mdingi.

Education MEC Mandla Makupula had announced that 982 Grade R teachers would be absorbed on a permanent basis with full benefits in attempts to make the sector more professional.

According to Makupula during his recent policy speech, more than 5 000 Early Childhood Development (ECD) or Grade R practitioners across the province were paid a stipend of R5 900 per month.

But Sadtu has rejected this as “exploitation”, saying it wants the thousands of qualified Grade R educators in the province to be employed with full benefits immediately.

“We demand as a union that all those ECD practitioners who are qualified teachers be absorbed with immediate effect,” said Mdingi.

The department hit back yesterday, with spokesman Malibongwe Mtima saying the 982 posts were enough for practitioners that had the required qualifications – a diploma in Grade R and a BEd in the foundation phase.

But Mdingi said a majority of ECD practitioners had started ECD centres on their own but the department of education then “hijacked” the centres and attached them to schools.

According to the department, there were 4 477 schools in the province with a Grade R class attached with a total of 133 734 children.

Sadtu also issued a stern warning to the department to stop the “willy nilly” transfer of serving educators from one school to the other.

The leading teachers’ union said it had had enough of its members being tossed around schools by the department, who they accuse of not sticking to proper guidelines.

Sadtu warned the department to respect the collective agreement No 4 of 2016 in this regard, failing which it would “pounce” to defend its members.

According to the agreement, the transfer of teachers should be based on, among other things, changes in curriculum; changes in pupil enrolment; merging of schools; financial constraints, and changes to gradings of schools.

But Sadtu believes the department is going about it the wrong way and therefore victimising its members. —