The President, cde Thobile Ntola
Members of the national working committee
Members of the National Executive Committee
Esteemed delegates and comrades
I am honoured to have been invited to SADTU’s historic 7th National Congress, which coincides with SADTU’s 20th anniversary, and to address you under the fitting theme, “Organise and empower education workers to deliver free quality public education and build socialism”.
It is exactly the combination of the two aspects in your theme that indeed gives me the pleasure to have to address SADTU’s conference on its 20th anniversary. It is during anniversaries like this that we take the opportunity to look back where we come from and analyse where we are and then develop an appreciation of the journey ahead.
Looking at SADTU today you cannot help but say ‘wow! what a feat’. Who would have known that what was conceived more than 20 years ago could have grown up to be such a big successful organisation.
When OR Tambo in the mid-80s instructed the ANC education desk to call outside leadership of progressive teachers’ unions to tell them that they have to be united to be in a stronger position to be part of the forces fighting against apartheid, indeed he was laying a foundation for a force that 20 years down the line is making this call contained in your theme.
The theme speaks to exactly what then was at the centre of what the role of a progressive teachers union should be. The debate was and I believe continues not only to be about whether teachers are unionised or are professionals. It goes beyond that.
It is about teachers being part of the revolutionary movement, being organic intellectuals whose task is also to become the liberators of minds; being teachers, yes, working for quality education, but most importantly, also having a historic task of working for socialism.
At the time OR instructed progressive teachers unions to unite, they were small groups, scattered all over the country. Though powerful, and small as they were, because of their political orientations, were felt wherever they were, but again their strength dispersed in their disunity. You had a DETU in the Western Cape with not more than a thousand members under Mdladlane, WECTU under Yusuf Gabru to the left, CPA in the middle and a number of others in the right.
In the then PWV, you had Mamelodi with MATU, coloured areas were under Ronnie Swarts and under Curtis was NEUSA, all scattered all over the country; but today, see what we have from those humble beginnings! Indeed 20 years of SADTU’s existence is worth celebrating.
Twenty years ago it was a time when the progressive forces were very disunited and had no government of their own. Now they have their own government and have this big majestic force, marching towards socialism.
‘What tasks still lie ahead?’ The historic task was not only to unite the progressive forces which I must say it is a project achieved. It was a question also about the political task of liberating the mind. At the time we spoke of ‘a people’s education for people’s power’.
From what cde Ntola and cde Vavi have said yesterday, it is clear that the revolutionary mission of the progressive teachers’ organisation must be taken forward.
As the Department of Basic Education and as the South African society, we have a major challenge of providing our children with quality education and it is these historic revolutionary tasks that still face us. It is not by accident that the ANC decided to make education an apex programme. It is precisely a fact that this is still an outstanding business.
Without going into details of what our response is as government, I thought President, it would be important to indeed take this opportunity to appeal to SADTU to take time, not necessarily now but even at a later stage, to input not only through written submissions but also through a vigorous engagement to make the proposed education sector plan a living plan.
We have consulted extensively on it, we continue to do so but the first price is to make it a living document that on an ongoing basis guides our work. I like the fact that your president keeps on quoting from the Bible. I would like to request you to make the plan something more than a Bible, something we can always refer to, but also something living that we can always enrich as we go on.
During the 7th congress, one of the critical questions we must therefore ask ourselves is whether we are up to this challenge presented to us by both our country and the global demand for better human resources development.
Teachers are a key pillar of any education system. It is not by mistake that we look at organised teachers, including the more than 245 000 members of SADTU, as key components of the revolutionary intelligentsia who must selflessly serve the nation.
In this sector plan, Action Plan 2014: Towards Schooling 2025, we articulate the important role teachers and union activists must play in education.
It is out of your efforts in the qualitative provision of a value-based education that we can celebrate with all the pride we can muster the ANC’s 100 years of selfless struggle, in 2012.
OR Tambo had envisaged a teacher’s organisation that would take its place among our revolutionaries in building a truly democratic, non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous society – a national democratic society best envisioned in the ANC’s Strategy and Tactics documents over the years.
Your 2030 vision discussion document shows a clear grasp of fundamental issues of transformation facing us. It is a vision well aware of 'the centrality of education in the growth and development of society'.
It reminds all of us of the opportunities created by the 1994 democratic breakthrough, of which we must not lose sight even in trying times when there are differences of strategy and tactics, or conflicting interests and approaches. These opportunities, as cited in the 2030 vision document, include the need to:
- strengthen the principle that ‘South Africa belongs to all who live in it’ as a strategic guideline for the entire education occurrence for learners and teachers alike
- build democracy, a culture of human rights and a value system based on human solidarity.
“When we think now, we should begin with the end, think of a win situation for us as teachers as a whole and society (win/win situation).”
Cde President, on that occasion, you reminded Union members that:
You decisively urged revolutionary teachers to renew their “commitment to teach children of the working class in defence of the revolution and our profession” [and to] “be an example in doing our work of teaching children of the working class”. This message Cde President, you reinforced in your political report yesterday.
You concluded by way of a citation from the revolutionary Che Guevara that says, “There is no better cause, so noble, than the cause of struggling for the working class.”
These are some of the critical issues that must seize our minds throughout the 7th congress as a movement committed to struggles of the working class in general and to the teaching of the children of the working class in particular, in defence of the revolution and the teaching profession as a whole.
The leadership of SADTU made the correct determination to make this congress focus also on issues of quality in education; teacher development and strategies for ensuring each learner has the opportunity to learn in a supportive environment.
Mapping out a vision for the Union is a step in the right direction better to ensure we remain on course all the time with no risk of losing sight of our strategic objectives both as the education sector and the country as a whole.
Despite all our challenges, as shown by the mid-term report on education at the ANC NGC, working together we have made great strides in pursuance of our solemn intent to expand access to public education, to improve the quality of our education system and to advance the goals of the National Democratic Revolution.
On the question of a free public education system, alluded to in the theme of the 7th congress, we have made notable progress. More needs to be done further to open the doors of learning and culture.
As was noted by the ANC’s National General Council (in 2010), the following are some of our achievements on the education front:
- The transformation of our schooling system from its apartheid past
- Clear measurable targets for improving critical aspects of the system, covering Grade R to 12
- Development of Action Plan 2014, towards schooling 2025
- Development of Annual National Assessments into a credible system making us all accountable for achieving standards;
- Through the Kha Ri Gude Adult Mass Literacy Campaign, one of our most successful mass campaigns, we have produced 650 000 literate adults in just two years
- The participation rate of children aged 4 and 5 in early childhood development has now reached 70%
- Access to primary and secondary schooling has reached near universal enrolment, with the highest participation of girls.
Our major challenge is to intensify work in the delivery of quality public education. The Quality Learning and Teaching Campaign heads our efforts and demands a pledge of commitment from all education stakeholders, government officials, parents, learners and teachers.
There can be no disagreement on the fact that quality education is inextricably linked to the quality of teaching and learning in the classroom.
Work has also been done in this area. Many of you will have been involved in the National Teacher Development Stakeholder process of 29 June to 2 July 2009 that sought to develop a new, strengthened and integrated plan for teacher development.
The recognition of the need to plan for differentiated development needs among districts, principals and teachers is one of the most important proposals arising from that process.
We are open to and in fact invite a critical approach to education policies and practices better to improve the education system and our learning outcomes.
It is important to talk frankly about these issues, just as Cde. President did yesterday. It is for this reason that I am inclined to agree with Stephen Hawking, a British physicist and mathematician that:
“Mankind’s greatest achievements have come about by talking and its greatest failures by not talking. Our greatest hopes could become reality in the future. With the technology at our disposal, the possibilities are unbounded. All we need to do is make sure we keep talking” (Cited in Business Day, 2 September 2010, p.11).
Your theme draws attention to the express need to “empower education workers to deliver free quality public education”.
It is a theme speaking directly to the priorities we have identified in Action Plan 2014, towards schooling 2025. Promoting the status of teachers, employing more, and improving their development and training are an important aspect of our drive to ensure that quality teaching becomes the norm, rather than the exception.
Once again, I want to thank SADTU for the role it has played over time in highlighting and pressing for the removal of the assessment burdens that teachers have faced since the introduction and implementation of outcomes based education.
Last month, we gazetted (in Government Gazette No. 33528) and posted on the department’s website the National Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) for public comment.
It is vital for teachers to participate in this process. The closing date for submissions has been extended to 15 October 2010.
The Ministerial Project Committee on CAPS has developed single, comprehensive and concise CAPS for each grade, R to 12, as recommended by the Ministerial Committee. These CAPS provide clear guidelines on what teachers ought to teach and assess in each subject on a grade by grade basis.
They also provide a thorough guide for teachers to plan their time, structure lessons and detail the content of the work to be covered each week and each term.
An intensive developmental programme has been planned to assist teachers prepare for the implementation of the CAPS and also engage in enhanced teaching methodologies to improve learning.
I would therefore like to urge you to encourage teachers especially to comment on the curricula. Their opinions matter most! Actually the ANC’s National General Council called on us to convene provincial education summits in the next six months culminating in an education conference. Again it is this process again where SADTU would be expected to play a very important role.
I do hope that through these summit processes we can claw back what we lost in making education a societal issue. Through the National Education Coordinating Committee we had managed in the 80s to unite parents, learners, teachers, academics and the general society around education and we should recapture that so that we can give meaning to this call by the President.
I must reiterate the fact that there are serious challenges that must be dealt with, and this we must do frankly, with all honesty, and with no pretence, in the best interest especially of the poor black child whose life rests delicately in our hands.
The recent strike by public servants requires serious introspection from the education stakeholders. As the department we affirm the right of workers to strike as enshrined in the Constitution and our commitment to improve the working conditions of our employees.
I’m being kept abreast and support the developments of discussions between the department and teachers’ unions around plans to implement a recovery programme in the sector. I believe that we need to treat 2011 as an extraordinary year and put in place interventions that can assist in stabilising the educational environment and improve teaching and learning in our schools.
The aim is to implement these efforts in the 2011 school calendar. An earnest appeal is made to all educators to become involved in the intensive teaching and learning programmes so that we can work collectively to improve the learning outcomes of the education system.
Let me take this opportunity to congratulate SADTU on its 20th anniversary and wish you well in the celebrations planned for this Saturday, 9 October.
There is much reason to celebrate this anniversary than not to celebrate it.
We are well aware that it was launched, in 1990, as a progressive union, at a difficult time in the life of our nation, at a time when it was not at all fashionable to challenge and face the might of the state. It is this rich history of struggle that we must guard and defend jealously.
As comrade Vavi brilliantly put it, as mortals, let’s protect the legacy of this great organisation in every possible way; I cannot agree more with you comrade President, its security lies in the hands of a politically developed cadre. There is nothing as dangerous as giving political power to a politically undeveloped cadre, it is like giving a loaded gun to an untrained person, so in marching forward to the envisaged socialism let’s do so with absolute clarity of the mind, utmost honesty, dedication and integrity.
Let this 7th Congress of SADTU, especially its 20th celebrations, be a moment of introspection, reflection and recommitment. This Congress must necessarily create a platform earnestly to address critical issues and challenges facing education in South Africa today.
On behalf of our Ministry and Department of Basic Education, I wish you a successful congress whose resolutions we trust will help us advance the goal of expanding equal opportunities and improving quality education for all our people. It is through your assistance and support that we can take the teaching profession even to greater heights.
Together we can do more for our children if we remember, at all times, that “there is no better cause, so noble, than the cause of struggling for the working class.”
Once more, thank you very much for creating this opportunity for me to address you.
Source: Department of Education
