SADTU and DA at logger heads

By Ofentse Mokae
24 February 2010

The South African Democratic Teacher’s Union has lashed out at the Democratic Alliance following the opposition party’s call for the union’s president to resign citing poor performance at his school.

The union accuses the DA of pursuing political provocation.

This follows after the party called for SADTU President Thobile Ntola to resign from his position at SADTU and devote himself to improving the education system at his school which has a pass rate of 29.3%.

“Given this abysmal pass rate, the DA calls on him to resign,” the party’s shadow deputy minister on basic education James Lorimer said.

Lorimer alleged that Chubekile Secondary School in the Eastern Cape where Ntola is principal and science teacher, produced 43 matric candidates for 2009 and only 12 of these learners passed, a “significant” drop from an 85% pass rate in 2005.

However the teacher union, an ally of the ruling ANC, argues that sine Ntola joined the school in 2000, the results were as low as 20% but they celebrate that by 2005 the pass rate was at 85%.

“President Ntola is and will remain committed to quality education and Quality Learning and Teaching Campaign,” the union said in a statement.

The union says had Ntola not been seconded, the DA would still be blaming him for being between the school and the union, adding that being seconded, he is automatically substituted at his school.

The DA had earlier claimed that SADTU’s past record of defiance in the face of any attempt to instill a culture of quality education in schools has been hampering education for decades, and none of the four education ministers the country had since the arrival of democracy in 1994, had been able to take on the union successfully.

“The DA does not believe that SADTU is sincere in its commitment to the social contract to improve education, because within a month of signing this commitment it had already threatened to go on strike over a DA application to have teaching declared an essential service,” Lorimer added.

Meanwhile Sadtu says the DA has no interest in education but everything to do with politics and is using education to get back at us because of our stance and support for the ANC.

“Since the DA has declared war on us, we are ready to fight,” the union concluded.