Teachers up in arms over short holidays

THE INCREASING number of pupils writing matric exams has forced the Department of Basic Education to cut the teachers’ summer holidays.

On the other hand, teacher unions have accused the department of short-changing teachers in its attempt to find an answer to the bulging number of scripts that needed to be marked.

The department’s plan entails closing schools a week earlier than planned in December, and getting teachers back to school on January 7 the following year. Pupils will be back two days later, on January 9.

Schools have traditionally reopened in the middle of January. This year, inland schools reopened on January 17.

Mathanzima Mweli, the department’s director-general, has sent a circular telling unions that this year’s summer holidays for teachers “will be shorter than has been in the past”.

“The reason for the short summer school holiday is that the Council of Education Ministers took a decision to close schools in the first week of December with effect from 2019,” Mweli said.

“This decision was taken to ensure that the end of year National Senior Certificate exams marking processes do not negatively impact on learning and teaching time.”

Elijah Mhlanga, the department’s spokesperson, said this move was informed by the increasing number of matriculants. This meant more time was now required for marking the examination papers, he said.

“Remember, the numbers of Grade 12 (pupils) have increased. This means we need more markers now,” Mhlanga said.

“After markers have done their work, we need more time to process the results. For us to do that, we need to start (marking) earlier.

“For us, the important thing is that we’ll now have a week that we did not have. We’ll use that week for marking the national senior certificate papers,” Mhlanga said.

The figure of matrics writing as full-time candidates shot up by almost 100 000 from 2014 to last year.

In 2017, the figure stood at 629 155 and 532 860 in 2014. In 2016, it stood at 610 178.

Allen Thompson, deputy president of the National Teachers Union, said teachers were aggrieved by the decision. “This is tantamount to taking the leave days of employees,” he said.

“We’re now checking with our legal team whether we can’t find ways of compelling the department to pay for the leave days. They are reducing the number of (leave) days. We’re saying if you do this, it means you owe us money because you’ve taken our leave,” Thompson said.

Basil Manuel, executive director of the National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of SA, said the decision “punished” teachers.

The move was unfair because teachers, especially those teaching matriculants, usually continued working during the mid-year, he said.