We need more incentives for teachers, not fewer

Within our failing public education system, the Minister of Basic Education, Angelina Motshekga, seems to have noticed that there are some good public schools - and she has decided to punish them.

The standard of public school education in South Africa, with several notable exceptions, is abysmal. Many of our schools are not teaching our children to read, write or calculate, let alone equipping them with the skills a modern economy needs. So we have simultaneously huge levels of unemployment and large numbers of vacancies for skilled people. Millions are jobless while our economy is held back by a lack of engineers, accountants, managers, doctors, nurses, artisans and good teachers.

Faced with this dire outlook, Mrs Motshekga has taken two decisive actions.

First, she used tax-payers' money to buy herself two luxurious, imported cars, a BMW 730D and a Range Rover TDV8, together costing R1.7 million. When there was a public outcry, she pointed out that she was entitled to buy even more expensive cars. So, according to her logic, she had actually saved the taxpayers money!

Second, she has proposed regulations to restrict even further the ability of public schools to pay good teachers extra in order to retain their services.

Mrs Motshekga wishes to pass new regulations under Section 38A of the 1996 South African Schools Act. We believe she is trying to smuggle in new legislation through the back door, thus avoiding taking the matter through Parliament. She intends "making regulations relating to the payment of unauthorised remuneration or the giving of financial benefit or benefit in kind to certain state employees".

In other words, if parents at a public school wish to retain an excellent maths teacher by using their own money to pay her a bit extra, Mrs Motshekga wants to make it much more difficult to do so. Even under the present system, the department has not got the capacity to manage relatively simple arrangements. The vastly more onerous and complex arrangement that Mrs Motshekga is now proposing, is clearly designed to prevent paying extra to teachers wherever possible.

Mrs Motshekga has buckled to the demands of the so-called South African Democratic Teachers Union, who demand that all teachers be treated exactly equally irrespective of their performance. SADTU spends much of its time defending poor performance and preventing good teachers from showing up the rest. Schools that employ SADTU teachers are generally involved in a race to the bottom. By this measure Mrs Motshekga is participating in this race and ignoring the interests of education.

The consequences for public schools are obvious. If these regulations are implemented, there will be a further exodus of good teachers (who have many other options) and it will become even more difficult to attract qualified young people into education. Middle class parents (who also have other options) would move their children out of the public school system. Experience around the world has shown that when the middle classes abandon public education, the system as a whole declines significantly, to the detriment of the poor (who have no other options). Fee paying parents are essential in a public education system because they cross-subsidise poorer learners and bring a wealth of expertise to the governance of the school system. This is particularly the case in South Africa.

What are the motives behind the regulation? Is it simply that Mrs Motshekga, whether she is driving her BMW or her Range Rover, just hates the idea of any teachers getting anything extra? Does she really want to do further injury to public education?  (Being sane, she cannot possibly believe this regulation will improve it.)

The answer, once again, lies within the dual worlds that the ANC inhabits. In the actual world, where ANC politicians themselves receive services, they want the best they can get. Where they are customers, the customer is king. In the virtual world, where other people receive services, they want ideology to prevail; when other people are customers, the customer is a serf. Many ANC politicians send their own children to expensive private schools with no concerns about some teachers getting paid more than others. But other people's children are forced to go to schools where ideological equality is enforced. This ideology, first and foremost, acts in the interests of the worst teacher in the weakest school, and ignores the requirements of education.

Members of SADTU also inhabit two worlds. Many SADTU leaders and members carefully avoid sending their own children to schools dominated by SADTU teachers. This is because they know that the SADTU culture prevents any educator from rising above the weakest in the system, with devastating consequences for education. For their own children, they believe the school is there to serve the children. For the schools where they teach, they believe the school is there to serve the teachers.

When I was Chairman of the Governing Board of Grove Primary School in 1996, we had a dispute with the Government about the school's right to nominate teachers for appointment. There was a demonstration at the school by SADTU members who wanted the state to enforce teacher "deployment". But some of these very SADTU members had their own children in Grove Primary as they were protesting outside it!

I have no doubt that to rescue the education system from its present mess, it is necessary to align the interests of the ANC ruling party with the interests of public education. I can guarantee you that if ANC politicians were forced to send their own children to public schools, you would see an immediate improvement. Mrs Motshetga's destructive regulation would be scrapped. They would force SADTU to put the interests of the children first.

The DA proposes that it should be mandatory for all Members of Parliament to declare where they have sent their own children to school. I have no doubt that if ANC politicians were required to send their own children to public schools, these regulations would quietly be scrapped. The same applies to union leaders. If, as now, there is a contradiction between the politician's policy for his own children and his policy for other people's children, the public should be able to hold him accountable for this contradiction. When you choose to become an MP, where you send your children to school becomes a legitimate matter of public concern.

Teaching is one of the most important jobs in the world but it is a tough, demanding, poorly paid job. Our teachers need more incentives, not fewer. Unless she is a saint dedicated to teaching (these exist), why should a maths graduate want to stay in teaching when she can double her salary and halve her stress by moving to another career? On the basis of performance evaluations, there should be no restrictions on the "top-ups" that good public schools can offer to excellent teachers with money raised by the parents, who contribute so greatly to public education to the benefit of all.

Instead of driving quality out of public education, Mrs Motshekga should apply her mind to how to attract good teachers to poor schools. Using state money for such incentives would be far more productive than spending vast sums on a bureaucracy designed to prevent any teacher or school performing better than the rest. SADTU would vigorously oppose such incentives -- but they would be a true example of affirmative action designed to improve the quality of education for the poor.

So desperate are South African parents to find decent education for their children that at our few good public schools there are scores of applicants for every place. The ANC must stop interfering with the schools that work and instead try to improve the many that don't. This should be Mrs Motshekga's job description.

In our education system, the DA believes that the educational interests of children come first. Good teachers believe this too. We want all children to get a decent education, and the way to do this is to give teachers all the incentives we can to inspire them to excellence.

This article by Helen Zille first appeared in SA Today, the weekly online newsletter of the leader of the Democratic Alliance, September 13 2009

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