An opposition party has sided with Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga and urged her to remain steadfast in negotiations with teachers union on the Annual National Assessments (ANAs).
The SA Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) said at the weekend that the decision to have the tests written in December‚ and subsequent announcement‚ was done without consultation.
On Monday‚ at a press conference in Pretoria‚ Sadtu and other unions said that they did not the believe the ANAs‚ in their “current form”‚ were in the best interests of learners.
They said they would “not be administering” the ANAs‚ but were cautious not to label their refusal to do so as a “strike”‚ and rather called for a task team to be set up to address their concerns.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) on Monday singled out Sadtu and said the union’s decision to “to fight the ANAs is nothing less than a declaration of war on South Africa’s education system‚ and the constitutionally enshrined right to receive a basic education”.
Motshekga is scheduled to meet with Sadtu and the National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of SA on Monday following negotiations over the weekend.
"The DA applauds the minister’s sentiment‚ expressed in weekend newspaper reports‚ that Sadtu should not be allowed to continue to disrupt the education system after not getting their way on having the ANAs scrapped‚” the party said.
“We welcomed the minister’s announcement last week that the ANAs will go ahead‚ between December 1 and 4 this year‚ and will support Motshekga in her efforts to pry open Sadtu’s stranglehold on education in South Africa.”
“Sadtu has labelled the minister’s decision ‘disrespectful’ towards them. It is not. It is‚ instead‚ respectful towards every child in our schooling system. We stand with most South Africans who truly care about education in welcoming the minister’s decision.”
The assessments are standardised national assessments for languages and mathematics in the intermediate phase (grades 4-6) and in literacy and numeracy for the foundation phase (grades 1-3). They were introduced by Motshekga in 2011.
The DA described them “one of the only tools we have to assess the status of learner literacy and numeracy and then implement targeted interventions aimed at improving the quality of education for our children”.
Don’t back down to Sadtu on ANAs‚ DA urges Motshekga
An opposition party has sided with Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga and urged her to remain steadfast in negotiations with teachers union on the Annual National Assessments (ANAs).
The SA Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) said at the weekend that the decision to have the tests written in December‚ and subsequent announcement‚ was done without consultation.
On Monday‚ at a press conference in Pretoria‚ Sadtu and other unions said that they did not the believe the ANAs‚ in their “current form”‚ were in the best interests of learners.
They said they would “not be administering” the ANAs‚ but were cautious not to label their refusal to do so as a “strike”‚ and rather called for a task team to be set up to address their concerns.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) on Monday singled out Sadtu and said the union’s decision to “to fight the ANAs is nothing less than a declaration of war on South Africa’s education system‚ and the constitutionally enshrined right to receive a basic education”.
Motshekga is scheduled to meet with Sadtu and the National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of SA on Monday following negotiations over the weekend.
"The DA applauds the minister’s sentiment‚ expressed in weekend newspaper reports‚ that Sadtu should not be allowed to continue to disrupt the education system after not getting their way on having the ANAs scrapped‚” the party said.
“We welcomed the minister’s announcement last week that the ANAs will go ahead‚ between December 1 and 4 this year‚ and will support Motshekga in her efforts to pry open Sadtu’s stranglehold on education in South Africa.”
“Sadtu has labelled the minister’s decision ‘disrespectful’ towards them. It is not. It is‚ instead‚ respectful towards every child in our schooling system. We stand with most South Africans who truly care about education in welcoming the minister’s decision.”
The assessments are standardised national assessments for languages and mathematics in the intermediate phase (grades 4-6) and in literacy and numeracy for the foundation phase (grades 1-3). They were introduced by Motshekga in 2011.
The DA described them “one of the only tools we have to assess the status of learner literacy and numeracy and then implement targeted interventions aimed at improving the quality of education for our children”.
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