Skills tests for top teachers
To ensure their competency Root out cadre deployment
TEACHERS applying for senior posts at schools will have to write competency tests before being promoted, if the Basic Education Department follows through on its new plans to improve the management of schools, and the quality of learning.
The department yesterday confirmed information, in a parliamentary reply, that it intended introducing the competency tests as the norm in all schools, to ensure appropriately qualified teachers were in leadership positions.
Aspiring principals, deputy principals and heads of department would also have to submit to tests to assess their skills.
These are some of the recommendations of the National Development Plan, and of the unit tasked with investigating the state of teaching in South Africa.
The country’s major teachers’ unions said that while the department was yet to formally broach the subject with them, they would not be opposed to a measure to eliminate cadre deployment and get the best candidates into the top jobs.
In the parliamentary reply to a question posed by DA MP Annette Lovemore, the department said it intended introducing the competency tests as soon as the next financial year, after consultation with the Education Labour Relations Council, where any proposed changes to the requirements for teachers to be promoted must be put to the unions.
Earlier this year, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga devel- oped and published a detailed description of the professional and personal attributes that the ideal public school principals must have.
The South African Standard for Principalship was published in the Government Gazette for public comment, and the intention is that the final version thereof be used to improve the recruitment and selection process of heads of schools.
It is expected to become national policy in the first quarter of next year, and to lay the foundation for the development of the competency tests for teacher promotions, according to the parliamentary reply. Yesterday, department spokesman Elijah Mhlanga said the plan to introduce the competency tests was still in its “elementary stages”.
“The planned competency tests for promotional purposes will ensure that we get appropriately qualified, skilled individuals with suitable management and leadership which are important for curriculum implementation, and are a key focus of the department.
“The tests will form part of a wide range of initiatives being implemented to improve the quality of teaching as well as improved school management,” Mhlanga said.
Asked about the proposed structure and content of the competency test, Mhlanga would not elaborate.
Henry Hendricks, the executive director of the National Professional Teachers Organisation of South Africa (Naptosa), yesterday said there had been rumours about the introduction of the competency tests, but to his knowledge, Naptosa had not been formally consulted.
“We would welcome such an approach, provided that the measuring instrument has been discussed with us.
“There are far too many incompetent people who have been promoted. There are some appointments which have been made because the applicant belongs to a particular union or political party.”
Allen Thompson, the deputy head of the National Teachers Union (Natu), was unaware of such a plan. He proposed that the department first wait for the ministerial committee investigating the selling of posts to complete its work. Natu was not opposed to a means that would “eliminate the selling of posts and cadre deployment”.
Mugwena Maluleke, the general secretary of the SA Democratic Teachers Union, felt the department’s plans could demoralise teachers. “We would urge the minister to table such a proposition at the Education Labour Relations Council to avoid confusion,” he said.
The DA’s Lovemore has criticised the department for not planning to also introduce competency tests as a prerequisite for entry into the teaching profession.