EDUCATION TALKS - NEDLAC PROVIDES VITAL CHANNEL OF
COMMUNICATION
The dispute between teacher unions and the Department of
Education brought to light two interesting issues. On one hand it
highlighted the fact that the channels of communications between
the parties were not properly set up. This became clear at the
budget workshop (reported on in the last Nedlac Update), which was
the first time the Department of Education both provincial and
national engaged in discussions with the unions around the budget
allocations on education.
On the other hand, it showed how a perceived lack of
transparency and willingness to negotiate had come between the two
parties. This observation stems from teacher unions having stated
clearly that they were not against the removal of temporary
teachers per se but that the manner in which the matter was handled
by the Department was problematic.
The need for a channel of communication became crucial. The
budget workshop was a good start. The investigation into classes
without teachers provided another opportunity for the two parties
to forge a working relationship conducive to finding solutions to
the many problems facing education. Imagine the scenario - the
provincial department of education has no record of a school near
Vryheid, but teacher union officials insist it's there. So they
conduct a site inspection and find, yes, there is a school there,
it just falls under a different region!
In terms of enhancing the channels of communication that have
now been opened, some observations:
- The unions need to do some capacity building so that their
negotiators are equipped with necessary technical skills to match
Departmental officials.
- Government needs to be more open on how it plans to restructure
its systems - so that teachers can see that the restructuring and
management of the budget constraints goes further than cutting on
the teaching personnel.
MINISTER OF EDUCATION, PROFESSOR SIBUSISO BENGU, ADDRESSES
NEDLAC EXECUTIVE COUNCIL
At the Executive Council of 11 September, Minister Bengu was
invited to report back on the latest developments in taking forward
the agreements concluded in June between the Ministry of Education
and the teachers' unions. Introducing his topic, Professor Bengu
said that "first and foremost, the agreements were about the need
to work together to restore confidence and trust in one another,
something that had reached its all time low level since 1994".
Budget workshop
Regarding the Budget workshop, where provinces shared
information with the unions on their budgets, Professor Bengu said
that there had been an agreement on the need to constitute proper
and more permanent structures for national and provincial
consultation on such matters. Since the workshop, there had been
two further meetings with the unions to consult and inform them on
the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) Education Sectoral
Team Report.
Classrooms without teachers
This investigation assessed teaching staff numbers at
various schools who were lobbying to re-employ their temporary
teachers. Teams of investigators, facilitated by Nedlac, visited
schools in Kwa-Zulu Natal, and received reports from others in
Gauteng, Free State and Western Cape. The investigation in Kwa-Zulu
Natal resulted in 63 teachers being re-employed. To qualify, the
schools had to prove that they they had been unable to re-organise
staff after the cutting of temporary teaching posts, even with
shifts in teaching workloads. Regardin the issue of temporary
teachers in general, the Minister reported that the moratorium was
still in place until the "conditions" around it had been
finalised.
Norms and standards for post provisioning & measures
for rationalisation and redeployment
One of the unions' biggest complaints was around the
fact that provincial Ministers of Education could determine how
many posts they could afford, rather than being subject to
nationally determined targets. The new Employment of Educators Act
addresses this. The province will be free to rationalise within
these parameters, using a national retrenchment/
redeployment mechanism, which was still to be finalised
between the unions and the department. Professor Bengu was hoping
to do this by 15 September.