The Government Gazette: NOTICE 752 OF 2010- DEPARTMENT OF BASIC EDUCATION. No. 334343 Action Plan to 2014: Towards the Realisation of Schooling 2025 was released for public comment recently.

Reading through this hefty 192 page document today, I got to thinking again how we as individual teachers could work towards and contribute daily to the improvement of the quality of our Education system. In this gazette, our Minister of Basic Education outlines the Department’s plan. She states:” The action plan has 27 goals. Goals 1 to 13 deal with outputs we want to achieve in relation to learning and enrollments. Goals 14 to 27 deal with the things we must do to achieve our 13 output goals.”

Goals 1 to 13 highlight all the problems which need to be addressed within our current system: the need to improve literacy and numeracy in Grades 3, 6, 8 and 9; the need to ensure that more matric learners attain a Bachelor’s degree pass; to retain learners in our schools at least until age 15; to help learners gain access to FET facilities and opportunities after Grade 9.

I found some of the points in the implementation strategy outlined in Goals 14 to 27, very interesting. Goal 18 is “to ensure that learners cover all the topics and skills areas that they should cover within their current school year.”

The Minister goes on to outline the problem. She says that many children move into the next grade without having completed the teaching program for the year. And so it continues year after year and bottlenecks at the exit points – Grade 9 and 12. She states: “The problem is partly caused by insufficient time being spent in the year on teaching and learning. Time is lost because teachers and learners arrive late, or leave early. Time is also lost during the school day when breaks are extended and teachers are not in class when they should be.”

How much more damage then has been done this year, where in addition to “normal” loss of teaching time caused by unprofessional teachers who are “not in class when they should be”, we have had time off (1 week) for the World Cup Soccer; and teachers have taken to the streets to participate in strike action for the last three weeks?

As with any profession, teachers too have a code of Professional ethics by which they must abide. In addition to this, we have all been asked to commit to the Code for Quality Education, the preamble to which reads: “The power to improve education lies within all of us. We call on all department officials, teachers, students, parents and community members to make a commitment to a `Code for Quality Education’. In line with this code teachers are to make the following pledge: “As a TEACHER, in line with the SACE Code of Professional Ethics, I promise to: teach, to advance the education and development of learners as individuals…”

As the teachers’ strike drags on with seemingly no end in sight, and teachers have forsaken their learners and use the loss of learning time as ammunition to get the government to acquiesce to their demands, it is abundantly clear: that many of South Africa’s teachers see the Code of Conduct for teachers as an irrelevant document, not binding on their consciences, with which they have chosen not to abide.

I plead with our Minister to look into declaring teachers as essential services staff so this debacle of the last few weeks will never again be repeated. I plead with our Minister of Education to enforce the Professional Code of Conduct and strike teachers off the roll (not only for serious criminal offences) but for failing to adhere to their professional oath: to TEACH.