Make it desirable for teachers to be at state schools

At the moment, many previous model C schools use various mechanisms to raise funds to pay salaries over and above what the department of education is paying.

This is to attract and very often retain teachers for the obvious benefit for children and society and therefore, the country.

Good teachers are in high demand, both overseas and in the private schools and therefore, schools have to find ways of keeping them by topping up their salaries.

Government is now introducing legislation to make these top-ups illegal.

The logic being that the poorer schools can't afford it and therefore the better teachers move away from the schools.

The government created the mess by closing down teacher training colleges. It created the conditions which makes emigration more attractive and now wants to dumb down the schools.

You do not improve poor schools by making good existing schools worse.

And this logic, just like how they've downgraded maths by creating math literature, has not worked. In fact, if anything, university experience has shown that all it does is to make things worse.

Like many things, it sounds good in theory, but government is not going to force very good teachers to remain in schools where they're not getting paid. Why should they stay when they can get paid much more in private schools and overseas?

The state should concentrate on improving working conditions at government schools and all model C schools, so that teachers find reasons to stay.

This is just another failed policy and if the government is so interested in socialism, why do they fly business class and why do they have such smart vehicles?

Mahmoud Rangila,Isipingo Hills