Durban - Schoolteachers applying for senior posts will have to write competency tests before being promoted, should the Basic Education Department follow through on plans to improve the management of schools and quality of learning.
The department on Monday confirmed information revealed in a parliamentary reply, that it intended introducing the competency tests as the norm in all schools, to ensure appropriately qualified teachers were in leadership positions.
That aspiring principals, deputy principals and heads of department should submit to tests was a recommendation of the National Development Plan, and of the unit tasked with investigating the state of teaching.
Some of the major teachers’ unions said while the department was yet to formally broach the subject with them, they would not oppose a measure to eliminate cadre deployment and get the best candidates into top jobs.
Replying to DA MP Annette Lovemore in Parliament, the department said it intended introducing the tests as soon as the next financial year, after consultation with the Education Labour Relations Council, through which any proposed changes to the requirements for teachers to be promoted must be put to the unions.
Earlier this year Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga published a detailed description of the professional and personal attributes the ideal public school principal must possess.
The South African Standard for Principalship was published in the Government Gazette for public comment and the intention is that the final version should be used to improve the recruitment and selection process of school heads.
It is expected to become national policy in the first quarter of next year and to lay the foundation for the development of competency tests for teacher promotions, according to the parliamentary reply.
On Monday, department spokesman Elijah Mhlanga, when asked about the proposed structure and content of the tests, would not elaborate and said the plan was still in its “elementary stages”.
“The planned competency tests for promotional purposes will ensure that we get appropriately qualified, skilled individuals with suitable management and leadership,”he said.
“The tests will form part of a whole range of initiatives being implemented to improve the quality of teaching as well as improvement of school management.”
Henry Hendricks, executive director of the National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa (Naptosa), said there had been rumblings about the introduction of the competency tests, but that, to his knowledge, Naptosa had not been formally consulted.
“We would welcome such an approach, provided that the measuring instrument has been discussed with us. There are far too many incompetent people who have been promoted.”
Hendricks said that while at some schools the competency of teachers vying for senior posts was gauged during the interview process, this was not the case at all schools, and there was a need for this to be the norm.
Allen Thompson, deputy head of the National Teachers’ Union (Natu), was caught unawares by the department’s plan, and argued that the department should first wait for the ministerial committee investigating the selling of posts to complete its work.
However, Natu was not opposed to a means that would “eliminate the selling of posts, and cadre deployment”.
Mugwena Maluleke, the general secretary of the SA Democratic Teachers Union, warned that the department’s plans could “demoralise” teachers.
“We urge the minister to table such a proposition at the Education Labour Relations Council to avoid confusion,” Maluleke said.
“We urge the minister to allow the commission on the selling of posts to conclude its work so that we can use the findings to improve the recruitment, support and acknowledgement for the dynamic leadership required in the public service.
“It is crucial that we do not demoralise our teachers by introducing so many tests, that seem to suggest that teachers are being targeted,” Maluleke asserted.
Whereas Lovemore had criticised the department for not planning to introduce competency tests as a prerequisite for entry to the profession, Mhlanga said several measures were in place to improve quality, including conducting an audit of the entire teaching corps to establish where the gaps in skills were, and address them.
The Mercury