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For the sake of our kids' future, ANA should be implemented

May I confess upfront that I am a teacher who left the classroom many years ago at a time when I believed that the struggle that was confronting South Africa was that of transformation .

I believed that a democratic government was in power and that as democrats, we should do everything in our power to use every space we were in to build a new nation based on our democratic values.

In 1980 the government of the time spent an average of R146 per capita on a black child compared with R1211 for a white child. So for the black child the backlog was huge when transformation started.

I also confess to not knowing all the facts around the topic I am writing about, that of the SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu), National Professional Teachers Organisation (Naptosa) and other unions' unwillingness to administer the Annual National Assessments (ANA) this year.

All I know is the joyful anticipation by my granddaughter in Grade 5 who was supposed to write the ANA this year and was asking me to help her prepare for this as she wanted "to do very well".

 

Of course, my little one is prone to exaggeration. So poor granny had to keep asking questions and giving her exercises to write, based on what she said was likely to be asked.

Granny didn't write an ANA but is positive that the government is trying to help improve our poor ratings in maths and literacy.

Granny wants the best for her granddaughter and many other little ones who see themselves as firefighters, doctors, presidents, nurses, economists, pilots, and teachers of the future.

This applies especially to those who come from communities where education was a privilege and where, in 1953, Hendrik Verwoerd had said they should not be given education "... that is of no avail for him (them), to receive training that has its aim in the absorption into the European community, where he (they) cannot be absorbed".

He argued that black children were being exposed to education that was "showing him (them) the greener pastures of European society where he (they) is not allowed to graze" (quoted in Kallaway, 1992).

A week later into our preparation the news broke that ANA was to be postponed to 2016 for reasons both Sadtu and Naptosa have articulated in the public media.

Not being in that space I cannot judge the veracity of the issues.

All I want to ask is why did it take until this late for teachers to come to this decision? Why, of all issues of bargaining, choose this critical exam to reject to administer?

Has there been sufficient reflection and negotiation on this matter? Are all teachers really unanimous on this decision? Is this strategy and tactic the best to achieve the outcome of better working conditions or quality of education in South Africa?

Why disappoint this little girl (who by the way represents many pupils' aspirations), for whom ANA was an important step in her development?

I write to appeal to our teachers as a granny, parent, just a person who dreams of a South Africa in which maths achievement for children could improve. I dream of excellence emerging in those spaces once condemned asinferior by Verwoerd.

I write to plead with teachers to reconsider their decision not to administer ANA. The anticipative face of my granddaughter is enough to tell me ANA means something to the little seeds for tomorrow!

I urge you sisters, brothers, daughters and sons to reconsider. It is not cowardice to listen to the voice outside yours.

The overwhelming public opinion against your stance suggests that, this time around, you should put aside your inconveniences and administer ANA.

Then you can go back to the negotiation table with the minister to make suggestions that will enhance the ANA and standard of education of our kids.

By so doing you will be showing leadership.

lMpulwana is with the Commission for Gender Equality. She writes in her capacity as a grandmother

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