Well done to the NPC on its efforts to better the future generations by prioritizing education. I just hope that they will act and not just talk.
Those who are opposed to these plans / recommendations must come up with alternatives or just toe the line. Regards, Sent via my BlackBerry from Vodacom - let your email find you! -----Original Message----- From: Dominic Tweedie <[email protected]> Sender: [email protected] Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2011 06:54:35 To: <[email protected]> Reply-To: [email protected] Subject: [YCLSA Discussion] Old anti-SADTU wine in new NPC bottle Business Day *'New consensus' needed on radical education overhaul* * * *Karl Gernetzky, Business Day, Johannesburg, 14 November 2011* THE ambitious development plan unveiled by the National Planning Commission (NPC) on Friday reiterated that massive investment in education had not adequately improved quality, and called for a "new political consensus" aimed at radically improving the technical capacity of the system. Despite significant, as well as redistributive spending, widespread inequality persisted and 80%, or 20000, of mostly previously disadvantaged schools continued to underperform, the commission said. Its National Development Plan said the "new political consensus", ideally mobilised by the president, would be built on the idea that everyone stood to gain, but only if all were willing to make concessions. Most of the concessions listed, however, were aimed at teachers and teacher unions. The commission called for an immediate end to political interference by unions in the promotion and appointment of teachers, principals and district officials. Within five years there should be competency standards for all educator jobs, along with mandatory training and retraining, regular testing and performance- based pay. Minimum qualifications for principals should be introduced and recruitment processes should ensure candidates m et these criteria. Serving principals should be given a period of 10 years to acquire the requisite qualifications, failing which they should face retrenchment or demotion, according to the plan. Ultimately, principals should gradually be given more powers to administer schools, including financial management, procurement of textbooks and other educational material, as well as the hiring and firing of teachers. This was necessary so that principals could be held accountable for the performance of their schools, the commission said. National Professional Teachers Organisation of SA (Naptosa) president Ezra Ramasehla said the union fully supported the idea that competency should be the only criterion for management. The plan should serve as "a wake-up call that the ruling party has to realise that you don't need to continue to employ people based only on political connections", he said. Unions should, however, have a key role in ensuring that those in key management positions were competent, and "not just qualified", he said. Naptosa would also support competency-based pay, especially if it gave a clear career pathway for teachers and encouraged hard work and skills development, Mr Ramasehla said. In a statement, the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) said the union did not appoint or promote teachers, principals or district officials and the union's role was to ensure that agreed-upon resolutions on appointments were implemented fairly and procedurally. "The union is not a labour broker, so any insinuation by the NPC that we appoint officials is mischievous," Sadtu said. The call for competency standards was based on a narrow understanding of what teaching and learning were about; all the inputs of education should be dealt with if the process and the outcome were to be improved, the union said. Education specialist Graeme Bloch said although the plan was sound, one thing that was noticeably absent was the crucial role of political leadership. The best plans in the world for improving management and performance would not be enough, as the question was who was going to enforce it, which required political will, Mr Bloch said. Only where one had a "hands-on MEC", such as in the Western Cape or Gauteng, did one see officials performing, he said. The plan also noted that many school governing bodies were hampered by parents' lack of expertise, as well as by a lack of social status in teachers' eyes. Once elected, members should take compulsory courses to improve the ability of the bodies to govern, said the commission. The CEO of the Federation of Governing Bodies of South African Schools, Paul Colditz, welcomed the recommendations, saying it was clear unions, particularly Sadtu, were interfering with the management of schools and provincial education departments, and should not be allowed to "hold the system to ransom". It was "absolutely true" that most governing bodies where parents were either illiterate or did not have the required knowledge to govern schools were "being bullied" by teachers, Mr Colditz said. [email protected] *From: http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=158575* * * -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] .
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