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The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union wishes the South African Students’ Congress well for its 20th National Congress to be held at the University of Johannesburg. SASCO has been a reliable ally of SADTU in the agenda to transform education at all levels.

We are hopeful that the Congress will be characterised by vigorous and robust discussions that will shape the future of our country. SASCO has played an important role in the context of transformation in education since it was founded in 1991 at Rhodes University.
Our country and its developmental trajectory are facing unprecedented challenges currently.

One of those challenges is the extremely high unemployment rate especially as it relates to young people. There is universal consensus that it is only through education supported by a firm industrial policy that we can fight against the tide of unemployment.

SASCO as a progressive students’ organisation within the mass democratic movement therefore has a role to play in this regard, we rely on it to provide us with guidance as a country when it comes to education policies that can propel us forward.

We are hoping that the Congress will be occupied with discussions around how we can radically transform the curriculum at all levels such that the system yields critical, self standing, innovative and patriotic individuals instead of a loyal and obedient labour force for the markets. Our view as a Union is that, radical economic transformation remains a pipe dream if it is practically not supplemented by the radical transformation of our education curriculum at all levels as a starting point.

We hope that the congress can guide us further on this critical question.

As a Union of education workers, we pledge our unconditional support for the call for free higher education especially for the poor and the working class as ably led by SASCO. The Congress will have to zoom into ways in which we can reinvigorate this call, intensify it and see it to its logical conclusion.
 

Issued by SADTU