Primary teachers share ideas on how to boost learning in schools |23 May 2013

Mrs Delcy addressing the teachers  

A meeting was held yesterday afternoon at the School of Education, where a roomful of teachers had turned up to address the ministry.

The meeting was chaired by the principal secretary for education Merida Delcy, who said this was the last of a series of meetings being held with teachers from all levels in state schools.
The two main issues discussed in the meetings were teacher retention and students’ behaviour in schools.

Mrs Delcy said the first was a grave concern to the ministry, especially since it took a considerable number of years to train a teacher, but then see that teachers are still leaving.

Feedback from the audience cited the reasons they thought contributed to teachers resigning, such as teachers’ concerns not being listened to and addressed, and not getting enough support from the ministry.
Those present also said their workload was way too much, and with an already heavy load of 34 teaching periods per week, some were even catering for up to 40 periods.

They also asked for re-structuring of time-tables, so that teaching could be more efficient. This was in cases where a certain subject could be taught in the morning, and then moving on to another subject, only to return to that first subject later on in that same day.

As for students’ attitude, the audience said there is currently way too many students per class, which makes teaching difficult, as the classes of today are much more difficult to control than those of 10 years ago.

They also said the end of year bonus of R600 are not a sign of appreciation for their hard work and asked that it be revised.
PS Delcy said all the concerns had been taken into account and will be worked on by the ministry.
There was also a presentation on the draft national plan for social renaissance 2012-2017 by the principal secretary for social affairs Linda William Melanie. She explained what the plan was and the education sector’s role in it, and how teachers could make a difference and contribute to the plan.