SADTU welcomes President Zuma's speech and comments on education

SADTU welcomes the fact that the speech was very positive and speaks to the challenges we face as a nation in the midst of an international economic downturn and recession.

However, we are disappointed that the President avoided the issue of the public service and the outstanding question of OSD (Occupation Specific Dispensation) - what comrade Vavi refers to as the ‘ticking time-bomb.'. Perhaps this was wise. The unions will be meeting with the relevant ministers next week - when we should receive further clarity.

For SADTU as a union - the centrality of employment in government strategy - defending and creating jobs - is crucial. We do however have the following concerns:

• Does the current budget allow us to meet the targets that have been set? We need to look at the detailed programmes and plans that the President said would be made available in the coming days.
• Our other concern, in relation to the education commitments is in regard to provincial budgets. Often funds are budgeted - for example for ECD - and not all provinces spend the money on the intended purpose. This needs to be monitored.

On Education

We welcome the comments by the President and the emphasis on education as a priority. In particular:

• The roll out of ECD (Early Childhood Development) is crucial. International research shows that good ECD is crucial to later success in school. So the universal roll out of Grade R by 2014 is good news (although the original target was for 2010)
• We fully support the President's comments with regards to sexual abuse of learners by teachers. As SADTU we have said the following:
  • We have called on our members to blow the whistle on abuse wherever it occurs
  • We have called on the DoE to use its powers under labour legislation to discipline and dismiss
  •  We have said that the police must enforce the law with regard to statutory rape; and
  • We have fully supported the actions of SACE (South African Council for Educators) in removing abusers from the teachers roll and banning them from teaching in South Africa.
• Encouraging learners to complete their secondary education - we fully support this move. Currently approximately 40% of the cohort do not reach matric. The only chance these youngsters have of finding employment is if they are educated.
• We would support the need to train principals to make them effective school managers. But we would say you need to train and build capacity at all levels of the education system - including all teachers, and officials - particularly the district officials.
• FET (Further Education and Training) - the emphasis on this as the site of skills training is vital. Recent survey shows that there are some 3 million youngsters between the ages of 18 and 24 who are not employed and not involved in any form of training - we have to reach out to them.
• School sports should be boosted and be part of the mainstream curriculum, not just an extra-mural activity. SADTU fully supports this stance. It is ironic that as we move towards 2010 the majority of our schools have no sports facilities or physical education programmes.
• Higher education - we look forward to seeing the details on how access is to be extended to the children of poor families.

Statement issued by the SADTU Secretariat, June 3 2009

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