Teachers’ unions beat department
TEACHERS’ unions have succeeded in having this week’s Annual National Assessments shelved.
The refusal of the SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) to administer and mark the literacy and numeracy tests left the Basic Education Department with no choice – it had to reschedule the enormous assessment exercise at the last minute.
Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga and her senior officials held two meetings last week with Sadtu, and the National Professional Teachers Organisation of SA (Naptosa), and the SA Onderwysersunie (SAOU), to try to avert a boycott of the tests.
A joint task team now has until the end of the year to address the grievances of the unions and “remodel” the assessments.
The unions are also celebrating the fall of the “Gazette regime” – which refers to what they argued was the department’s tendency to publicly issue policy in government Gazettes and through circulars without thorough consultation with them.
The tussle between Motshekga and the unions raised the alarm about the government’s ability to enforce policy, and raised questions about the power which unions affiliated to the tripartite alliance held, education researchers and political analysts have argued.
Sadtu called on its 256 000 members to refuse to administer and mark the assessments.
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Education researchers warned last week of the precedent it would set for the unions to defy the department.
A statement signed by the leadership of the three unions said it had been a “joint decision” to “postpone” the tests.
The unions also managed to get the department to make a commitment to improving its relationship with them, and pour more resources into teacher development.
The unions said Basic Education director-general Mathanzima Mweli was also committed to addressing matters affecting the working conditions of teachers “as a matter of urgency”.
In explaining the reasons behind the boycott call, Sadtu general secretary Mugwena Maluleke and deputy general secretary Nkosana Dolopi accused the department of waging a “well-orchestrated, low-level war” against the unions, and of continuously failing to improve teachers’ working conditions.
At an education research conference at Stellenbosch University last month, Motshekga pledged that more guidance would be provided to schools on how to use the assessments to improve classroom practice, and she acknowledged that her department needed to work on refining the tests.
While they have been hailed as a critical policy intervention, education researchers have consistently pointed to the flaws in the assessments.
The chief arguments were that the results were not comparable over years, and schools had taken to cheating.
Motshekga remarked that through the introduction of the assessments, the department had focused all officials, schools, teachers, and parents on learning and teaching achievements.
The department said on Friday that the postponement was in the best interest of stability in the schooling system.