Johannesburg - The battle lines have been drawn in the dispute between teacher unions and the Department of Basic Education, after the unions announced they would boycott the Annual National Assessments (ANAs) that were due to start on Thursday.
It was not clear on Wednesday night how the department would respond to the latest act of open defiance by the unions, but Minister Angie Motshekga could be under immense pressure to read the riot act to teachers who refuse to administer the exams.
The department’s spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said on Wednesday night the exams would be administered as planned.
Asked what the department would do with teachers who boycotted the exams, Mhlanga said: “We will expect them to report to the HoDs (heads of department) in their respective provinces to explain and we will take it from there. All schools are going to administer these exams.”
Announcing on Wednesday that their 400 000 members would boycott the assessments, teacher unions cited alleged tender deals for pals as the reason behind the Basic Education Department’s push for the ANAs.
The unions accused the department of not caring about the outcomes of the evaluation tests measuring the language and mathematics proficiency of pupils in grades 1 to 9.
They alleged that the department was interested only in spending the R200-million budgeted for the ANAs.
The SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu), National Professional Teachers Organisation of South Africa, Professional Educators Union, National Teachers Union and South African Teachers Union (Satu) were united in the decision, saying they would not stand by while the department abused its power.
“They (the department) have promised people, therefore they must go and pay those particular people. Tenders are killing our country and we, as trade unions and members, must stand firm to say we want exams to be administered by the Department of Education and not outsourced,” said Sadtu general secretary Mugwena Maluleke.
The unions decried the manner in which Motshekga had withdrawn from mediated negotiations which had reached a positive conclusion.
They claimed an agreement existed stating that the tests would be scrapped this year while all parties worked on a new model to be used from next year.
Teachers and school principals are against the current model. They believe it lacks consistency and validity. The results of the assessments are measured against those conducted in past years, despite a change of questions each year.
Unions have also complained about the timing of this year’s tests, saying there is no rationale to force pupils to write the tests so late in the year.
“The writing of the ANAs is an ill-considered issue. It is something that is not in touch with the reality taking place in schools at this time of the year. Teachers do not have the time for ANAs,” said Satu’s Chris Klopper.
He complained that most pupils had finished the academic year, and the insistence by the department suggested it wasn’t bothered about quality.
Agreeing, Maluleke said: “If the department doesn’t care how many children are going to write it, it doesn’t care about its validity, the integrity of the same assessment or the reliability, therefore it doesn’t care about the purpose of this tool.”
The unionists said they would do their best to protect their members from victimisation by the employer.
The tests are supposed to be marked and sent to the national department before the end of the first quarter of next year.
The Star
* Use IOL’s Facebook and Twitter pages to comment on our stories. See links below.