South Africa’s biggest union in the education sector, the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (SADTU), would like to welcome all teachers and learners back to school when the 2018 school year begins on Wednesday, 17 January.

In line with the second pillar of the Union’s 2030 Vision: Creating a Learning Nation and our obligation to the Quality Learning and Teaching Campaign (QLTC), we commit to ensuring that our members will be ready to deliver effective learning from the first day of school provided that the Department has assisted by creating a conducive environment for learning and teaching by, amongst others, delivering learning and teaching materials to schools on time.

We expect each class to have a teacher and therefore call on the department to prioritize the appointment of teachers before the start of this calendar year.

As the QLTC campaign calls on all stakeholders in education to jointly take responsibility for improving the quality of education, teachers cannot do it alone.  We therefore call on the department of education, communities, learners and parents to also roll up their sleeves to ensure a productive 2018 school year.

We again take off our hats to teachers and our members in particular who teach in under-resourced and township schools in Quintiles 1 to 3, for the work well done in the 2017 Matric results. It is these schools that continued to improve in their performance by producing more quality passes than their counterparts in Quintiles 4 and 5.

We also commend our members who opened their schools last week and have begun to teach the 2018 matric class sacrificing their holidays and spending precious time with their families.

We remain firm in our resolve that a quality early childhood development guarantees a smoother progress and better development of all learners. We need to flip the system from 2018 by focusing our attention on the early stages of the development of our children. This can be achieved if the Department appoints the best and most qualified teachers for foundation phase and direct all the necessary support to this phase.

This will minimize the matric euphoria and waste of money and time on camps and extra classes on Saturdays and holidays during the last year of schooling(matric). This is what all normal education systems do.

Mother tongue instruction remains central in the education of our children, as it witnessed by the performance of all learners doing their learning areas in their mother tongue, being Afrikaans and English. Therefore, we call on the Department to prioritize the development of our indigenous languages in 2018.

Teacher development programmes must rolled out for all the teachers in order to balance the pedagogical knowledge and subject content knowledge. Teacher development is a right to the teachers until retirement. 

We further call on the Department to provide security personnel in schools in order to create a safe environment to all our teachers and learners. 

As part of ensuring the readiness of schools for the 2018 academic year, SADTU’s National Office Bearers (NOB’s) will visit schools in some of the provinces on the first day of school.

The NOB’s will visit schools as follows:

President Magope Maphila: Lehutjwana Secondary School and Madikubung Primary School in Ga-Moretsele Village, Jane Furse, Limpopo.
Deputy President Mabutho Cele: Montclair Senior Primary School and Umlazi Commercial High School in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal.

General Secretary Mugwena Maluleke: 17 January 2018: Rodney Mokoena Primary School in Soshanguve, Gauteng.

18 January 2018: Soshanguve High School, Soshanguve in Gauteng.

Deputy General Secretary: Nkosana Dolopi:
17 January, 2018:

• Ratang Tuto High School in Postmasburg, Northern Cape
• Blinklip High School, Postmasburg, Northern Cape
• HTT BIDI High School, Postmasburg, Northern Cape

18 January, 2018:

• Bankhara High School, Kuruman, Northern Cape
• Rekgaratlhile High School, Kuruman, Northern Cape
• Wrenchville High School, Kuruman, Northern Cape,

19 January 2018

• Kuilsville High School, Danielskuil, Northern Cape
• Danielskuil High School, Danielskuil, Northen Cape

National Treasurer, Lindiwe Motshwane: Tinhlonhla High School in Jeppes Reef, Mpumalanga.

Vice President for Education, Veronica Hofmeester: Protea Park Primary School in Atlantis, Western Cape

Vice President for Gender, Dorcus Sekabate: Tlokola Secondary School in Meomaneng, Marquad, in the Free State Province

Vice President for Sports, Arts and Culture, Gloria Kgoleng: Mafotlhosi Secondary School in Joubertina, North West Province and Matlhaleng Secondary School in Kanana, North West Province.

 

Issued by SADTU Secretariat