5th November 2009

It is our firm belief that the primary and basic function of all unions is to look after its members.  In education this means that unions must look after the interests of educators and occasionally contribute to debates on policy. Any other actions undertaken by these unions are questionable and should be seen as meddling.

It is for this reason which we have stated above that the IFP views the roles which have been played by some teacher unions as being detrimental to the provision of quality education in our schools.

The fundamental question then is: Why would a departmental programme need a union buy in?  What happens if unions don't buy in, or are unwilling to accept the departmental programme?

These questions must be asked and must be studied together with the proposal by the Department to give funding for teacher development to unions.  It must be remembered that some unions in South Africa are more eager to promote party political radicalism and less interested in the promotion of teacher's interests.

The department must not be seen to be promoting the meddlesome propensity of some teacher unions by sidelining and ignoring the empowerment of district officials, who must be the department's first port of call when it comes to the implementation of all educational initiatives.

Unions are important role players, but our argument is that their role must not be confused with that of education officials.  We have experienced this problem in the past where donor money was given to SADTU to assist in the preparation of matric students for exams.

This programme ended up dividing both the teachers and learners into party political allegiances, leading to the boycott of the programme by a sizeable number of teachers and learners whose political allegiances belonged to other political parties.

Contact:
Mr Alfred Mpontshane MP,     082 441 6201 or
Liezl van der Merwe,              083 611 7470.