Johannesburg - The SA Democratic Teachers Union is not happy that Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga is exploring the introduction of a biometric system to monitor teachers.
Sadtu is concerned that the measure – to monitor the times when teachers report for duty and leave work – appeared as if it could be used as a “punitive” exercise for teachers, more than anything else.
Motshekga said at the weekend that the system would help the department to root out teacher absenteeism at schools and also monitor them in certain schools where they leave school premises and go to town.
The system is aimed at monitoring how many teachers report for work and at what time they leave the premises.
Motshekga said teachers would have to scan their fingerprints when they come to work, just as in some factories.
Sadtu spokeswoman Nomusa Cembi said the union viewed the biometric system, which would see teachers clock in and out of school using fingerprints, as a means of management that exists in every workplace.
“What we don’t like is that it’s got this punitive connotation. It’s introduced as if it’s there to punish uncontrollable teachers. The department can’t blame the teachers for failing to implement measures.
“Just like when teachers go on wildcat strikes, the measures to deal with that are there. You cannot go an illegal strike.
“If the teacher does not pitch for work, that’s absconding,” she said.
Cembi said the biometric system was a normal management exercise.
“The system has been piloted in the Western Cape and there has not been a problem with the system. It’s just (like) when the teachers have to fill in a register book, but this one is different because it uses a biometric system,” she added.
Motshekga’s spokeswoman, Hope Mokgatle, said the biometric system was still a pilot project. “That still must be discussed with teacher unions, how it will be rolled out and when.”
Mokgatle said the department wanted to “copy the system” that was in place in about 10 schools in the Western Cape.
“It’s a normal procedure – only to monitor attendance for school staff,” she added.
This comes a few days after the ANC announced that it was looking at declaring education an essential service.
Teachers’ unions reacted with anger and slammed the proposal, saying it would take away teachers’ right to strike.
Last week, ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said the party’s lekgotla had agreed that a mechanism to monitor all-round accountability in the education sector should be devised as a matter of urgency.
The Star