MEDIA STATEMENT -12 February 2010

SADTU congratulates State President Jacob Zuma on his State of the Nation Address. We are pleased to note that education continues to be a priority but we feel it is high time these undertakings and commitments are put into place as soon as possible.

In particular, SADTU welcomes the following undertakings and commitments:

• Improve the ability of our children to read , write and count in the foundation years;
• Assisting teachers by providing detailed daily lesson plans
• Provision of easy-to-use workbooks in all 11 official languages however we need commitment in the training and continuous development of teachers in this regard.
• All grade 3, 6 and 9 learners will write literacy and numeracy tests that are independently moderated.
• Increase the pass rate of these tests from the current average of between 35% and 40% to at least 60% by 2014.
• All 27 000 schools will be audited by officials from the Department of Basic Education and this will be recorded in an auditable written report. Will the audit also affect the district or circuit as points of service delivery? If these centres are left out then we are going nowhere.
• Increase the number of matric student eligible for university admission to 175 000 by 2014. However, we need more clarity as to how this will happen.
• Plan to increase the training of 16-25 year olds in further education and training facilities and to provide a second chance at education for those who do not qualify for university.
• Working with higher education institutions to ensure that eligible students obtain financial assistance through the National Student Financial Aid Scheme.
• Increase the number of youth who enter learnerships in the private and public sectors.

We must express our concern that the President has missed the opportunity to command the entire society to take education as a societal issue. It is crucial that the Head of inspire the nation to do everything in their power to support our teachers and learners.

We hope the President and the Department of Education will engage with the union further on these in order to speed up implementation.

Issued by Secretariat