Politician Mmusi Maimane’s Build One South Africa movement (BOSA) is planning a mass protest action at Education Minister Angie Motshekga’s Tshwane office before the end of November to lay its demands at her door.
BOSA announced its partnership with the Unemployed Educators’ Movement of SA in an effort to work together to bring national attention to the cause of unemployed, qualified teachers in the country.
It is calling on the department to employ the nearly 30 000 unemployed, qualified teachers on the UEMSA database.
The partnership between BOSA and UEMSA will see both organisations begin a programme of action to demand “tangible action” from the Department of Basic Education.
In a statement issued by Maimane, he said that BOSA was committed to offering a “real alternative” to the political party establishment “instead of making empty promises”.
He said they were committed to being a constructive force by working in conjunction with established role-players to solve the country’s core challenges – unemployment, education, safety, healthcare and government efficiency.
UEMSA is currently based in Gauteng with a database of almost 30 000 qualified teachers who are either sitting at home unemployed or working another job while waiting to ply their trade.
Maimane said they signed a memorandum of understanding to formalise a partnership that will work towards:
* Creating public awareness and taking a stand against issues such as the teachers’ intake process, the ratio of qualified teachers to students, subject allocation to unqualified teachers, abuse of the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative and salary kickbacks.
* Requesting the DOE to conduct a third-party on the aforementioned issues.
* Assisting in creating employment for the members.
* Working together with the national Unemployment Workers Union to upskill members as coaches.
* Providing legal aid in the legal action to be taken against the department.
In addition, Maimane said BOSA would be advocating for issues that include dropping the 30% pass mark for subjects, introducing an independent education ombudsman, incentivising students during the academic year and implementing tighter security at schools.
He said they also wanted to expand the extended programmes for under-performing learners, promote higher pay for performing teachers, as well as conducting a nationwide skills audit for educators.
“The Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, states there are 24 000 vacant teacher posts in South Africa. We can’t accept this while thousands of teachers sit at home unemployed, and some overcrowded classrooms have up to 70 learners to one teacher.
“We can’t lose 500 000 students from every cohort and expect to fix the youth unemployment crisis. We can’t give a school-leaving certificate with an average mark of 35% and wonder why the market cannot absorb young people and give them the dignity and purpose that comes with a job,” Maimane said.
Education