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I have diverted many projectiles aimed at Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga at numerous dinner conversations and gatherings.
I have leapt to her defence and shielded her from enraged citizens who accuse her and her department of fiddling while Rome burns.
It is not an easy task.
How do you come to her defence when people point out that:
. South Africa’s maths and science education ranks as the worst in the world, according to research by the World Economic Forum;
. Some Grade 6 maths pupils perform better than their teachers, as found by the Centre for Enterprise Development;
. South African pupils are rated just one place above the lowest-ranked country, Zambia, in the latest Southern and Eastern African Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality, which measures literacy and numeracy skills of pupils in 15 countries;
. Many pupils in Grade 9 are barely able to construct a sentence in English, as revealed by the Annual National Assessments’ pupil reading and numeracy skills; and
. Thousands of pupils are forced to learn in mud schools and under trees because of the lack of infrastructure.
In response to these points, I wish to highlight that Motshekga, through the Accelerated Schools Infrastructure Delivery Initiative, has delivered many brand-new and state of the art schools to poor communities.
In fact, if this project had started in 1994, there would not be a single mud school in South Africa today.
I raise attention to the fact that Motshekga devised the national assessments to address pupils’ poor maths and literacy skills.
The jury is still out on whether the costly and tedious programme can adequately diagnose and address the poor levels of literacy and numeracy.
I wish to make critics aware that it is Motshekga who came up with the idea of introducing biometric clock-in systems at schools to monitor teacher movements. She also wants to introduce competency tests for matric examiners and declare education an essential service to prevent teachers from striking.
Unfortunately, teacher union Sadtu has rejected all these progressive initiatives.
The minister has shown her willingness to tackle these serious problems.
But who is in charge of South Africa’s education system, Motshekga or Sadtu?
If Motshekga is in charge, why has she allowed Sadtu to capture and run provincial departments of education through a complex patronage system, where only the union’s members or people who are willing to pay get senior posts.
City Press has exposed numerous examples of senior Sadtu leaders – who are junior teachers or people who are being paid – being catapulted into jobs as principals, circuit managers, chief education specialists, curriculum advisers and even district directors.
A school is a complex operation and allowing a junior teacher to run it is like asking me to become the CEO of Media24. The results would be disastrous.
This somewhat explains why we are not getting the desired results, despite pouring millions of rands into the education system.
Sadtu’s officials are the most potent and destructive force I’ve ever seen, systematically destroying our education system, one school at a time.
While many of the union’s rank and file are hard workers, its leaders conduct themselves like a band of Mafia bosses, ruthlessly “dealing” with anyone who stands in the way of a position they have identified for themselves.
Sadtu bosses openly brag about how they have installed heads of departments and how they can depose them if they don’t toe the line. This is, unfortunately, true.
A few years ago, Sadtu mounted a relentless campaign against then director-general Bobby Soobrayan. The union accused him of all sorts of things.
Motshekga eventually removed Soobrayan last year, even though investigations cleared him of any wrongdoing. Today, he is sitting at home, getting paid for doing nothing.
Sadtu’s leaders in KwaZulu-Natal are using similar tactics, protesting against Thembelihle Vilakazi and Mfundo Sibiya, district directors at Ilembe and Ugu, respectively, because they do not sanction corruption.
This is the modus operandi of the union.
Our education system will not improve until Sadtu’s wings are clipped.
