Teacher unions dispute govt assertion on results

Teachers' unions have disputed Education Minister Naledi Pandor's assertions that the public service strike negatively affected this year's matric results.

The results dipped by 1.3%.

However, teacher unions Naptosa and Sadtu say the impact of the strike has been negligible. Sadtu says the public servants' strike earlier this year did not impact on the drop of the matric pass rate in the KwaZulu-Natal province.

KwaZulu-Natal Sadtu secretary, KK Nkosi, says the teachers in the province participated fully in the recovery plan to make up for the 21 days lost during the strike in June. Nkosi says other factors, including the shortage of teachers, could be responsible for the drop.

Natu spokesperson Allan Thompson says the strike is being used as an excuse.

Upgrading teacher skills
Pandor has also criticised the national and provincial education departments for what she terms a lack of administrative efficiency. She says government's strategies to improve matric results will be intensified because teachers have not yet started teaching with the expectation of tough papers that will test high-level cognitive skills.

The minister says to illustrate this, many schools sometimes spend two terms without any text books and teachers don't get curriculum development programmes. She says teachers in grades 8 and 9 do not view their teaching as part of skills development feeding into grade 12 and into post-secondary education.

She says the poorer schools continue to perform badly. "We have unqualified teachers in some classrooms, we have inadequate laboratory facilities and negligible development support to schools. Despite the quality improvement strategy, where funding has been made available, the affirmative action we expect is not taking place."

The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) says the drop in the matric pass rate comes as no surprise. IFP education spokesperson Alfred Mpontshane says South Africa's educational system has failed many matrics.

He says low levels of literacy and numeracy, and inadequately trained teachers are among some worrying issues.

The IFP has called for the strengthening of the educational system at district level. Mpontshane congratulated the matriculants who passed this year.