‘Assistants must assist, not teach’

THE SA Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) has welcomed the creation of 300 000 opportunities for young people to be employed as school assistants throughout the country.

The Department of Basic Education recently announced its plan to recruit young people between the ages of 24 and 35 to be Education Assistants and others to work as janitors, cleaners and caretakers.

They will be given a stipend of R3 500.

Sadtu yesterday said it has been calling for the provision of assistants at schools as teachers are overburdened with administrative duties.

“The provision of these assistants will enable teachers to focus on their core duties, which is to teach. As we welcome this move, we are going to guard against these assistants being used as teachers in classrooms. Their job, in the main, must be to support the teachers and learners and not to teach.

“We do not want to see the assistants being used to de-professionalise the teaching profession and we hope the South African Council for Educators will play a critical role to protect the profession. We also call on the department to follow proper vetting processes when employing these assistants as we do not want to see paedophiles in our schools,” Sadtu said. |