Build One SA leader Mmusi Maimane sparked a thought-provoking conversation about the social standing of teachers. Maimane calls for the valuerisation of teachers and equalisation of their pay grades to that of medical practitioners. That’s better than a vacuity of ideas associated with careerists who hardly pull their weight to add value to a constituency they purport to represent.
However, it’s an anomaly to set graduates of teaching and medicine on the same valuation just because both are primary beneficiaries of basic education. The benchmarking equivalence is even incongruent. Let’s explore other avenues on the teaching front for the occupation to be valued the same way it’s important for the country. This goes for nursing, whose scarcity can be disastrous in the event of a pandemic on the scale of Covid-19.
It’s therefore vital to emphasise on giving these professions some priority. The starting point is to impose 65 years as an age limit for public representatives and extend the retirement age for teachers to 70. Likewise, the government should introduce a demand-based quota system in the teaching profession and provide bursaries for educators with services to further their studies. The latter would be beneficial to those who wish to stay in the profession or pursue growth in the higher education and training sector. It wouldn’t do any harm to the fiscus.
Instead, it would give the treasury a reason to put more stringent measures to curbing unbridled procurement corruption and wasteful expenditure across all levels of the state. If it does sustainably get this right then the opportunity would present itself to roll out the dispensation to the nursing and police personnel. That would cushion these essential workers from the cost of living pressures.
Morgan Phaahla, Ekurhuleni
READER LETTER | Essential workers must be valued
Image: Freddy Mavunda
Build One SA leader Mmusi Maimane sparked a thought-provoking conversation about the social standing of teachers. Maimane calls for the valuerisation of teachers and equalisation of their pay grades to that of medical practitioners. That’s better than a vacuity of ideas associated with careerists who hardly pull their weight to add value to a constituency they purport to represent.
However, it’s an anomaly to set graduates of teaching and medicine on the same valuation just because both are primary beneficiaries of basic education. The benchmarking equivalence is even incongruent. Let’s explore other avenues on the teaching front for the occupation to be valued the same way it’s important for the country. This goes for nursing, whose scarcity can be disastrous in the event of a pandemic on the scale of Covid-19.
It’s therefore vital to emphasise on giving these professions some priority. The starting point is to impose 65 years as an age limit for public representatives and extend the retirement age for teachers to 70. Likewise, the government should introduce a demand-based quota system in the teaching profession and provide bursaries for educators with services to further their studies. The latter would be beneficial to those who wish to stay in the profession or pursue growth in the higher education and training sector. It wouldn’t do any harm to the fiscus.
Instead, it would give the treasury a reason to put more stringent measures to curbing unbridled procurement corruption and wasteful expenditure across all levels of the state. If it does sustainably get this right then the opportunity would present itself to roll out the dispensation to the nursing and police personnel. That would cushion these essential workers from the cost of living pressures.
Morgan Phaahla, Ekurhuleni
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