The plight of the South African student is well-documented; poor facilities, lack of motivation, low standards, uneducated teachers, ongoing strikes and poor school leadership all have lead to the dismal state of South African education. Student failure and drop-out rate equals over 70% and recent tests show that 1 in 6 Grade 6 South African students achieved over 50% for basic numeracy and literacy. Something drastic needs to happen for this situation to change.
It is thus with utter dismay that I learned that the South African Democratic Teacher's Union (SADTU) in the Western Cape has forbid its members from writing competency tests in order to be eligible to mark matric papers. It has furthermore urged all Principals and Deputy Principals to boycott the signing of performance contracts. I do not understand why.
The Western Cape government simply wants to raise the standard of marking and the standard of leadership quality in schools. The only reason I can see for SADTU's stance is that they know that many of their members would fail the competency tests and would fail performance contracts.
If we are to stop the rot of perennial failure of our students we need to ensure that our students are taught by the very best. Until SADTU change their stance, teachers will continue to fail in their duty to serve and educate the youth of our nation.
