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The Democratic Alliance (DA) has information from two provinces that the South African Democratic Teachers' Union (Sadtu) has instructed schools to be closed at 10h00 so teachers could attend Sadtu workshops. Sadtu needs to explain exactly how these demands accord with its commitment to a social contract for quality education, which it signed earlier this year, and its specific commitment to not take teachers out of schools unnecessarily.

The DA once again challenges Sadtu to a public debate on quality education.

It is also imperative that provincial MECs explain why they are giving permission to Sadtu to take teachers out of schools, knowing full well that matric pass rates are on a steady downward trend exactly because of ongoing disruptions to schooling. We have asked a parliamentary question to the national minister about exactly what the government's policy is on school disruptions.

Yesterday the DA discovered that Sadtu had called teachers in KwaZulu-Natal to a workshop to "empower" them, resulting in schools being closed at 10am.

Today, we have been shown a letter that a school principal in Limpopo was instructed by Sadtu to send out to his teachers, informing them that the school would be closed from 10am because of a Sadtu Teacher Forum. Presumably many other schools in the province are affected.

It is very likely that similar calls are being made in other provinces, and that all around the country there are schools standing empty, and children abandoned, because of Sadtu's demands.

When approached for comment on the closure of schools in KwaZulu-Natal, Sadtu deputy secretary Siya Mdletshe said that "To show how serious we are about education, our members went to schools first and left at 10h00 to attend the workshops."

This is completely and utterly absurd; Mr Mdletshe does not seem to understand that the school curriculum is built around a certain amount of teaching time every year and that every hour that is lost leaves children behind.

It is impossible to reconcile quality education with teachers being absent from the classroom and children being sent home at 10h00. We can only start to solve the education crisis by making sure that every teacher is in the classroom every day.