This after the basic education minister, Angie Motshekga, on Monday released the findings of the 2017 School Monitoring Survey (SMS) that this province, together with the North West and Eastern Cape, recorded high numbers of teachers who do not attend classes.

The departmental spokesperson, Lehuma Ntuane, tells OFM News that the mere fact that teachers are not attending the classes does not necessarily imply that there is no valid reason for the doing so. The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union’s (Sadtu) general secretary, Mugwena Maluleke, was also quoted by media reports saying although the union did not support or condone absenteeism, certain contributors like violence and depression could not be evaded.

Ntuane says there are many reasons that can be provided for some of the absenteeism and the department will investigate some of the findings by the SMS Survey.

“There is violence in schools that [teachers] need to deal with and they are helpless because they lack support from the government. There is also a high level of sickness among teachers who experience depression,” Maluleke pointed out. The general secretary of the National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of SA (Naptosa), Basil Manuel, was also quoted saying it was important to contextualise and understand the sub-optimal conditions teachers worked in. “We do acknowledge there are some who take advantage, but there are those who have valid reasons [for their absence],” noted Manuel.

OFM News