SADTU finds teaching conditions unacceptable

By Ilhaam Hoosain
11 March 2008

Every fortnight the National Working Committee meets and looks at issues of concern, at a national level, on Monday their focus was on education in the country.

“We took a decision that we would take a proposal to the National Executive Committee of the ANC, that we have a thorough debate and that we look at the state of education in South Africa,” says Jessie Duarte, ANC spokesperson.

Other issues that the National Working Cmmittee have dealt with were the “electricity challenges”.

“We need to ensure that all our learners in the country have access to quality public education.

“Hence we want to ensure that we do have free and compulsory education for our learners, from grade R up to higher education,” says Jonavan Rustin from SADTU.

He goes onto say that we need to invest in education in order to ensure that we build a skills base of our country.

“A particular focus would be on tertiary level education and the distances between university colleges and universities to which they are attached. A peculiar concern is the distance between two universities is 300km between the two institutions,” says Duarte.

The second matter that was addressed is that we should have discussion at community level about the quality of our education currently and where our children stand in terms of readiness for learning for life, as well as being prepared for higher education according to the ANC.

Currently they need to look very carefully at how norms and standards for schooling taking place within South Africa and that is something that needs to be addressed according to SADTU.

“As SADTU we have tabled a draft proposal and an input at the ANC Lekgotla, around the priorities for education,” says Rustin.