Look after teachers’ pockets

It comes as no surprise that government is once again at the helm of making a decision to the detriment of education. Could it be that its reason to fast-forward the reopening of the academic sector in the face of the international Covid-19 pandemic is soaked in financial concerns more than the evident life-threatening controversies of this unknown decease?

The fact that government coffers are affected due to the shutdown, obligated partially by the compelling salary payment to teachers, shouldn’t really be a burning issue, considering the decay in the education structures due to bad decisions brought on since our democratic climes.

Teachers privileges, such as subsidies, holidays, teaching methods etc, have suffered drastically since 1994.

Were they really privileges, or deserved packages for the challenges workers in the teaching profession have to face on a daily basis?

The new regime’s added protocols, such as overcrowding of classes, workshops and new children’s rights legislation, has no doubt infringed heavily on the general health and private lives of teachers. More so especially when their workload has to be incorporated into homework rosters.

Although this has been the pattern since apartheid, the present structure is overloaded to capacity.

It is pretty obvious why these privileges were incorporated in the first place.

Thus, in a reasonable assessment of the modern day teacher’s employment agenda since 1994, regarding the reduction in socalled perks, isn’t it fair to conclude that they, too, under the current burdened circumstances, are also eligible for overtime pay like every other worker?

If this be the case, payment during lockdown is long overdue and so, too, their mental rest.

Herbie Blackfoot