Teachers union, Educators Union of South Africa (EUSA), has handed over a memorandum of grievances to parliament.
It coincided with the president’s delivery of the State of the Nation Address on Thursday night.
EUSA demands among others that the quality of education should not be compromised.
General Secretary, Siphiwe Mpongose says the education system is currently facing a crisis. He says they want an audience with the president to address some of the issues.
Mpongose says they have so far received no co-operation from the national Department of Education.
“We have a deteriorating education system, we have an unproductive curriculum as teachers – we are forced to teach our young people which are the future citizens of this country. So the curriculum is failing them, it’s unproductive. The pass mark of 30% is one of the things that we are saying the education system is failing our nation.”
The union has also weighed in on the San Succi Girls High School debacle in which a teacher slapped a learner in class during an argument.
A video of the incident went viral and has been severely criticized.
CAUTION GRAPHIC IMAGERY:
Mpongose says the incident was unfortunate. “We regret what has happened because it involves one of our own as teachers. We always advise teachers to refrain from a direct engagement in conflict with learners. It is an unfortunate situation, we regret that, that happened and we wish to remain professional about the whole thing because really that was uncalled for.”
