SOUTH AFRICAN COUNCIL FOR EDUCATORS: ANNUAL REPORT 2001
MESSAGE FROM THE DESK OF THE CHAIRPERSON
It is indeed an honour to submit this Annual Report of the Council to the country at large and to the teaching profession in particular. It is barely eleven months since the Minister of Education constituted the new Council in terms of the SACE Act No. 31 of 2000. But, I can now say and justifiably so, that SACE has come of age
This is not to say that the past year did not have its challenges. Indeed, we strove hard to ensure that we remained true to our core functions as determined by the Act, namely:
- To ensure that all educators in the system are properly registered and furnished with registration certificates.
- Secondly, to put in place a substantive and achievable professional development strategy and;
- Finally, to ensure that all educators abide by the Code of Professional Ethics as laid down by Council.
After the promulgation of the SACE Act many educators began to realise the importance of registering with Council. The result was an influx of application forms that compelled Council to utilise all available and additional resources to deal with the volume. I am in a position to report that all backlogs should be eliminated by the end of March 2002. At the same time, I would like to urge educators who have not registered with SACE to do so as a matter of urgency. The consequences of not responding to the numerous requests made, and deadlines extended several times, could be quite unpleasant
In an effort to bring Council closer to the educators, we initiated an outreach programme that dealt with all core aspects of our mandate as defined in the Act. Various seminars, workshops and discussion forums were held in all nine provinces. This indicated a clear desire from all participants for the programme to be broadened and devolved down to each educator. Although this may not be possible to achieve in the immediate future, we did, however, commit ourselves, resources permitting, to intensify and broaden the scope of our programmes so that most teachers can benefit from this process.
The above has been and will continue to be managed by our Professional Development Department and coordinated by the Chief Executive Officer to ensure coherence, integration and accountability.
The Council has taken a keen interest in the Professional Development programmes currently unfolding in the country and decided to endorse the National Professional Diploma in Education (NPDE) initiative of the Department of Education (DOE) and the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC). This programme is directed at those educators that are under and or unqualified and fall outside the benchmark set by SACE (i.e. REQV 13 or M+3). I want to use this opportunity to encourage affected educators to make use of this initiative to breach the artificial gap created by the apartheid education system, so that we can realise our goal of quality education delivery to all our children.
The Code of Ethics Department has attended to numerous complaints while embarking on a proactive approach to raise the ethical consciousness of educators. I am in a position to report that this Department, after thorough training of panelists, has set itself the goal of ensuring that all backlogs relating to educator abuse (misconduct) are dealt with as a matter of urgency. Having said this, numerous complaints and serious allegations have been made from various quarters, including reputable international and local researchers, against educators who take advantage of their authority and status in society to abuse learners. These allegations are viewed in a very serious light and the Code of Ethics Department has been instructed to investigate and where evidence is found, to bring these perpetrators to justice. I want to encourage our communities and victims to speak out so that we can be in a position to act against any educator that fails to comply with our Code of Ethics.
It is important to reaffirm our viewpoint that the majority of educators or teachers do indeed act in a manner that makes us proud to be associated with them. There is, however, a minority that is causing great embarrassment to the profession. Let me assure you that these elements will be and are currently being called to account.
In this regard I have requested an urgent meeting with the Medical Research Council (MRC) to discuss their research findings published in January 2002, to afford Council an opportunity to study and deal with the substantive issues raised in their findings.
Our objectives for this year include:
- Closer cooperation with the communities teachers serve
- Building stronger and sustainable ties with statutory bodies such as the ETDP SETA, the ELRC and the national and provincial departments of education
- Strengthening existing partnership with all role players in education, particularly higher education institutions and developing partnerships with community based organisations (CBOs) and other non-governmental organisations (NGOs)
- Intensifying our outreach programme
- Ensuring the sustainability of professional development programmes
- Ensuring that all teachers currently in the system understand, internalise and conform to professional demands as set out in our Code of Ethics
- Reviewing our own internal systems to make them both receptive and open to current and future demands
- Consolidating our position nationally and internationally since we are home to all educators to ensure that all teachers move towards self-regulation to enhance accountability and solidarity amongst all teachers
- Finally, we will embark on an aggressive media campaign to enhance both information dissemination and visibility. It is my wish that educators and civil society at large will interact with this report and comment on both the content as well as suggestions on how to improve our reporting and future operations.
Allow me to express my gratitude to all Councillors, members of committees and panels, and members of staff for the commitment and dedication shown in the execution of their duties. Allow me also to wish all educators and learners well in this academic year and the broader society, particularly parents with learners at schools, to continue to encourage and support teachers throughout the year.
Glenn Abrahams (Chairperson)
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER'S REPORT
This has been SACE's first operational year under the auspices of the SACE Act 2000 and also the PFMA. SACE has experienced an overflow of its activities and commitments in its three main areas of operations viz Registration, Professional Development and Code of Ethics. As Education Departments implemented the provisions of the SACE Act, educators who were not in possession of registration certificates inundated the office with their urgent requests. These entailed setting up of systems and procedures that overshot budget predictions. The extra budgetary expenditure, in this regard, was approved by Council. Council also had urged that the Professional Development activities and Code related matters be dealt with as directed.
As a consequence of the additional activities, Council posted a deficit of R2 325 938 for the year under review. This was compensated for by the surplus of R2 786 659 recorded in the 2000 financial year. Council has approved of the financials and has instructed that SACE keeps strictly within the approved budget for the period 1 January 2002 to 31 March 2003. A detailed activity plan and control measures have been submitted in this regard. SACE is happy to welcome our new Director, Muavia Gallie. He brings to SACE a wealth of experience and research on matters concerning educational transformation in general and professionalism in particular.
It has always been our vision that SACE would become the home of all educators. Over and above responding to issues of professional development, registration and ethics, a professional council like SACE must surely provide advice, guidance and where possible, relevant assistance to educators. As a collective SACE has bargaining powers and the benefits of these need to be passed on to Council and to educators themselves. In the community spirit of "letsema - illima" we must enlist the voluntary services of educators to help build our democracy as our way of promoting "matsema". We need to reach out to educators who experience difficulties and to commend those that do us proud. In these ways, among many others, SACE is gradually becoming home to teachers.
It is our desire to do more for educators rather than less.
- SACE needs to mount outreach campaigns on a far larger scale. Induction programmes are missing in our menu.
- SACE's research and communications wings are virtually non-existent.
- SACE's physical presence is required in various parts of the country.
- A call facility is required so that SACE can assist educators with advice related to their problems or requests.
- SACE's database is static. It has to be converted into an updated dynamic base.
- SACE lacks an integrated system that brings together all its operational areas for optimization of SACE work.
- Workshops and seminars on Professional issues need to be done on a large scale.
- SACE needs to strengthen its capacity to become assertive in the areas of quality assurance and other national educational initiatives, and to make policy interventions.
- SACE must become an authority of, and voice for the profession.
- The Council salutes educators for their good work. We plead with educators to move beyond discussions and debates on issues of curriculum and conditions of service. Educators, as key agents for change, must continue engaging themselves and their charges, where possible, on matters of national interest. HIV/AIDS, poverty, moral regeneration, unemployment, discrimination, human rights, democracy, globalisation and nation building are some of the issues that need the on going input of educators. The progressive transformation of our country requires the active participation of teachers.
A corps of patriotic professionals will go a long way in securing a better life for everybody. The future is in your hands.
Rej Brijraj
(Chief Executive Officer)
ADMINISTRATION
It gives me great pleasure to join the SACE team. My task within the organisation is to coordinate the various divisions as well as the people and activities within SACE. SACE must, on the basis of sound, accurate and complete statistics, be able to appraise the profession. The registration of educators. upholding the Code of Ethics and enhancement professional development activities are all important in the drive towards an improved educator corps.
This focus will be strengthened by the desire to make SACE, and especially the Website (www.sace.org.za), a 'one stop shop'. It is our firm belief that teachers must feel comfortable to contact us on everything that concerns them no matter how big or how small it may seem. Every teacher that visits our website must leave the site with at least more knowledge and more information. Even if the issue at hand is not within our jurisdiction, we shall strive to provide the teachers with the links to the relevant people or institutions. A simple 'search engine' located on our site to facilitate this idea is envisaged in the near future.
In the execution of my duties, I believe that we need to build into our programmes the advancement of the research capacity of educators; the development and capacitating of educators; the strengthening of communication between and within the education community; and further strengthening the transformation process through education, development, institution building and wherever possible, technical assistance.
In order to effectively and efficiently achieve the delivery of our core responsibilities within SACE, we will focus on:
* Value creation for our educators by:
- Minimising disruption in the education sector relationships;
- Increasing the speed of delivery of support services;
- Promoting and enhancing a secure operating environment;
- Ensuring quality services.
* Value creation for the education community by:
- Promoting a clear vision and leadership in education;
- Encouraging increased performance of all role players;
- Sharing of resources and benefits among all;
- Continuous development in a stimulating environment;
- Creating a culture of teamwork and success orientation.
* Value creation for the Council by:
- Honouring commitment to delivery;
- Increasing Council value through enhanced debates and discussions;
- Fulfilling the legal, social and political responsibility requirements.
These ideas can be realised if we put forward a clear strategic and service focus, as well as performance targets. Let me suggest a few:
Strategic Focus:
- Maximising service delivery to current registered members by responding to requests and rendering service beyond their expectations;
- Achieving operational excellence by transforming our organisation into an effective and efficient service provider of choice for all educator needs;
- Maximising the benefits and support to educators by the building of networks and partnerships with all service providers who have a stake in education;
- Creating new opportunities and benefits for educators by exploring new avenues, such as the supply of computer skills to educators, linking them up with the Internet, developing a voluntary core of educators willing to render service beyond their 'call of duty' in, and outside the education sector, and so on.
Service Focus:
- Currently, the short- and medium-term focus is to render services to all educators who are registered within the education system, within the three core functions of SACE;
- The medium- and long-term focus is to render service far beyond this. Here we are looking at providing those who need information with the relevant contacts; giving advice of a 'generic' nature to Educators; using the collective muscle of educators to give them financial benefits; facilitating exchange programmes both in and outside the country and making development opportunities known to educators by sharing information about study awards and bursaries, to cite only a few examples.
COMMITMENT
The Administration is committed to ensuring that the necessary systems, policies, guidelines and procedures are adhered to in the interests of SACE and the profession at large.
In conclusion, let me thank Council for granting me the opportunity, privilege and honour to serve the members of this profession the noblest of all.
Muavia Gallie (Director)
REGISTRATION DEPARTMENT REGISTRATION DEPARTMENT
The year 2001 was yet another challenging one in our quest to carry out the mandate conferred upon Council by the SACE Act, No.31 of 2000.
The Act mandates SACE to register educators. Therefore, the development, implementation and maintenance of a single registry for all educators in the country is the pride of the Council. Having had 30 June 2000 as the final cut-off date for the registration of educators in public institutions, the next step in the year 2001 was the registration of educators in recognised independent institutions (hereafter referred to as independent schools ).
The registration of educators in independent schools posed new challenges, due to the fact that these educators do not fall under one umbrella body like the Department of Education. Communication and ensuring payment of registration fees and monthly levies was also not an easy task.
In excess of 80 000 applications were received and processed during the year. Another challenge posed by the registration of educators at independent schools is the fact that most qualifications are not straightforward education qualifications. Independent schools can and do employ specialists in fields other than education. The Council was then challenged to avail provisional and conditional registrations.
Provisional registrations apply to cases where the applicants do not satisfy all the requirements for registration, but where Council is of the opinion that the requirements will be satisfied within a reasonable time. In the case of conditional registrations, a letter of motivation from the head of the institution should accompany the application. The educators are supplied with letters stating that they are registered to teach at particular institutions. Educators who are either provisionally or conditionally registered do not receive registration certificates, but are issued with letters of confirmation.
In the beginning of the year 2001, scores of educators descended upon the offices of SACE. These were educators who had missed the cut-off date, those from independent schools and newly qualified educators. Included amongst these were those who wanted to check on their registration status, those in need of certificates, as well as those making general inquiries. The Council would like to take this opportunity to express its gratitude to those educators who waited patiently in queues. They made it easier for us to do our work and thereby speed up the registration process.
OUTREACH / INDUCTION PROGRAM
The pressure experienced during the first quarter of 2001 was an eyeopener to the Council and led to the realisation that there was a need to reach out to educators. The Registration Department was then mandated to embark on an outreach program that would serve the purpose of induction and kick-start the registration process of final year education students in all the institutions of higher learning in the country.
This program ran from July to October 2001. Student educators were informed about the Council, and the origin and composition (committees, councillors, departments and office) of SACE. They were then given the opportunity to ask questions before being guided on how to fill in the application forms. The fact that it is illegal to employ an educator who is not registered with SACE was reiterated.
The student educators were not required to pay the registration fee. They were made to understand that they were indebted to the Council, and that the registration fee was payable as soon as they became employed. This program was rewarding to all involved because:
- Final year student educators were afforded the opportunity to meet and engage in discussions with SACE officials
- SACE was demystified
- All misconceptions were to a great extent, cleared
- Registration was speeded up
- Unlike in previous years, there were no long queues at the beginning of 2002.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the institutions, the staff and students, for allowing SACE to undertake the provisional registration. During the months of November and December 2001, data on the applications of the student educators was captured on computer. We requested the heads of the institutions to provide us with the results of the students as soon as they became available. To those who have responded, the Council is most grateful.
Educators are reminded of the importance of registering at leisure, instead of only when they seek employment, when posts are advertised, when they apply for promotion posts, or when threatened by the authorities. In that way the pressure on both the educators and the office will be minimised.
REGISTRATION
The database stands at 411 256. This means that the majority of educators have been registered with SACE. Certificates have been issued, and the information is stored with the necessary back up. Educators are requested to take proper care of their certificates.
Apart from speeding up the registration process, another significant move in reaching out to educators was the establishment of a support call answering service. Our education liaison section had to be beefed up to enable satisfactory communication with educators.
MAINTENANCE OF THE REGISTER
Maintaining this register means that we have to update it constantly. Our aim is to create and maintain a register that has integrity. As a result, we embarked on a process of auditing the register in 2001. Auditing involves going through each and every registered teacher's record and verifying captured data. In doing this, we are making use of the Department of Education's PERSAL records for public school educators. The audit has assisted us in discovering educators' latest employment details and we are now able to repost, all certificates that were returned.
Charlotte Ngobeni (Registration Manager)
CODE OF ETHICS DEPARTMENT CODE OF ETHICS DEPARTMENT
The challenge of ensuring the efficient and effective implementation, maintenance, monitoring and enforcement of the SACE Code of Professional Ethics has been rewarding. For the year under review, the appointment of the Legal Affairs Manager at SACE has ensured that all complaints regarding educator conduct as well as investigations into the complaints have been dealt with expeditiously. The work of this Department is carried out within a statutory framework wherein the relevant sections of the SACE Act, No. 31 of 2000 will apply. Therefore, section 14 of the Act read in its entirety means that all matters are investigated by panel members and a recommendation based on their findings made to the Disciplinary Committee. The Committee may decide to either charge the concerned educator, in which case we begin prosecuting through our disciplinary panel, or to dismiss the matter for various reasons, such as insufficient evidence. Other recommendations that have been accepted are those dealing with mediation and conciliation, especially where the Committee is of the view that this process is needed to resolve tensions in the schools rather than subject a particular educator to a disciplinary hearing.
The Department's work has also been aided by the increasing number of members who are willing to serve on the investigation and disciplinary panels. This means that at a provincial level, organising and mandating a panel to conduct either an investigation or hearing has been made easier. Although all these activities have to be coordinated from the national office in Centurion, we do foresee the possibility of establishing provincial offices in order to improve on SACE's delivery of services in the provinces. Councillors and panel members went on training workshops on Sexual Harassment organised by this office in September 2001. The number of complaints which the office receives dealing with the sexual abuse of learners by educators is slowly increasing. Therefore, it was important for panel members to receive this training to make them aware of the complexities involved in such matters. Follow-up workshops have also been planned for 2002. The SACE legal team at Cheadle, Thompson and Hayson provided further training in Advocacy Skills. Similar training will be conducted on an on-going basis for newly appointed panelists. In this regard the office wishes to express its appreciation for the cooperation and efforts of members from the different components of Council.
In partnership with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), a working group was constituted to attend a workshop to discuss measures to combat violence against girls in South African schools. The workshop was held in November 2001 in Pretoria, with research papers on case studies being presented by organisations such as the HSRC and Independent Projects Trust. Invitees were from both the public and private sector. On the basis of recommendations made by this working group, SACE and UNICEF will be in a position to embark on strategies to eliminate the scourge of violence against girls (and boys) in schools in 2002.
The year 2001 also saw the revision and adoption by Council of certain sections of the Code of Professional Ethics and the SACE Disciplinary Procedures. The revised Code appears in the September/October 2001 issue of SACE News. Publicity has also been done through the 2002 calendar. However, the Code of Ethics Department is aware that it has to do more. This office will duly undertake a wider distribution of the Code.
Thus, the year ahead poses numerous challenges and educators will have opportunities to participate in workshops to examine and explore values and ethical issues, which confront educators daily. Ultimately it is our goal to ensure that educators maintain the professional standards required of them.
OVERVIEW OF NUMBER OF COMPLAINTS RECEIVED:
Total complaints received in 1999: 71
Total complaints received in 2000: 112
Total complaints received in 2001: 88
1999
4 Cases need further direction from Council;
3 Cases are still under investigation;
5 Cases were formally investigated and finalized;
6 Cases were referred to the Department of Education for further investigation;
8 Cases were heard by a disciplinary panel;
45 Cases were finalized, of which 26 were employment grievances and / or salary disputes.
2000
22 cases need further direction from Council;
23 cases are still under investigation;
4 cases were formally investigated and finalized;
4 cases were referred to the Department of Education for further investigation;
2 cases were heard by a disciplinary panel;
57 cases were finalized, of which 28 were employment grievances and / or salary disputes.
2001
8 cases still need further direction from the Disciplinary Committee;
22 cases are still under investigation;
8 cases were physically investigated and finalized;
13 cases have been referred to the Department of Education for further investigation;
1 case, from last year was heard by a disciplinary panel and was finalized;
45 cases have been finalized of which 42 were employment grievances and / or salary disputes;
TOTAL NUMBER OF CASES TO DATE:
TOTAL RECEIVED: 271
TOTAL NUMBER OF DISCIPLINARY HEARINGS: 10
TOTAL FINALIZED: 150
Rethabile Kikine (Legal Affairs Manager)
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT
The report of the Professional Development Department provides a critical review of the activities that took place in 2001 and covers both the Professional Development and Communication Programmes of SACE as the latter also fall under this Department.
As a way of improving the image of and its visibility, developing the profession, and improving communication between SACE and educators, the Professional Development Department engaged in a number of activities. Through the various ongoing development and communication activities and programmes, SACE reached a milestone by managing to reach out to educators in their respective provinces, regions and districts. A number of Professional Development workshops, SACE Outreach Forums and Seminars were held to afford educators opportunities for development and to enhance communication between SACE and educators. These paid dividends because educators learned more about SACE and are beginning to be actively involved in its activities on an ongoing basis. In addition, the working relations between SACE and its role players at provincial, regional, district and school levels have improved.
Throughout the year the Professional Development Department worked tirelessly to meet the set targets and goals. In realising these goals we ensured that SACE's presence would begin to be felt by educators, policy makers, departments of education, teacher unions, teacher educators, researchers and other role players at various levels (national, provincial, regional, district and schools) through the delivery of the following programmes:
- Ethics and Values in Education (EVE) Project
- Ethical and Legal Training (ELT) Project
- Internal Research Activities
- SACE Outreach Programme in the provinces
- SACE Publications (Annual Report, Annual Report Highlights and Newsletter)
- World Teachers' Day Celebrations
- Ongoing Participation in Educational Structures - e.g. Standards Generating Body for Educators in Schools, Education Training and Development Quality Assurance, Various Learnerships, ETDP Sector Education Training Authority, National Teaching Awards.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS
Ethics and Values In Education (EVE) Project
Material Development
The Unilever Ethics Centre (University of Natal: Pietermaritzburg) in collaboration with SACE, went through a consultative process of developing comprehensive material for the SACE Ethics and Values in Education Project. This material development process produced a pilot version handbook on the Code of Professional Ethics for Educators. The objective of the handbook is twofold:
- To provoke thinking, debate and discussion about ethical issues in education; and
- To assist educators to become ethically competent in their daily professional lives.
The handbook was used to conduct EVE workshops in seven provinces for pilot purposes. The aim of the pilot workshops was to review or revise the handbook, based on the feedback from educators and various role players. Currently, the material is in the process of being revised. The revised and final version of the handbook will be available in April 2002 for further circulation and distribution to educators and relevant stakeholders.
In total, 215 educators and 10 SACE Councilors went through the EVE workshops.
Ethical And Legal Training Project for the Implementation of the SACE Code of Professional Ethics
Material Development
The Ethical and Legal Training Project produced an Ethics and Legal Training manual that is used to:
- Train educators to become Ethics Promotion Facilitators in order to implement the SACE Code of Professional Ethics in their respective schools and institutions
- Provide educators with an analysis of the theoretical background and practical application of the SACE Code in such a manner that the Code becomes a living document in the daily lives of educators
- Provide ongoing monitoring reports for the evaluation of the training process and implementation of the SACE Code in schools. SACE has already used the ELT manual to train educators in the provinces on ethical and legal issues. Educators from various schools around the country have been using the manual in their own schools to train and sensitize their colleagues about the SACE Code and its implications.
Both EVE and ELT workshops were attended by educators nominated by the teacher unions, departments of education, Independent Schools Boards, Further Education and Training institutions, Higher Education institutions and Associations of School Governing Bodies. A total of 240 teachers attended the ELT workshops.
- The Ethics and Values in Education Project and Ethical and Legal Training Project contributed enormously to the development of the trained educators by:
* publicising the SACE Code of Professional Ethics in a more meaningful and developmental way
* providing educators with a sound conceptual understanding of ethical issues in relation to the SACE Code
* raising practical debates and discussions about day-to-day ethical issues experienced in the profession
* instilling some sense of professionalism among educators and encouraging them to professionalize their working environment
* working towards reducing the number of prospective misconduct cases that may be received by SACE now and in the future.
- In 2002, we are planning to run the national EVE and ELT Master Trainer Programme with the view to extending the projects to more educators at school level.
Participation in Educational and Policy Making Structures
- ETDP SETA, ETDQA, LEARNERSHIPS: SACE is one of the two professional bodies constituting the ETDP SETA. Councillor Tello Khodumo represents the Council on the ETDP SETA, ETDQA and the relevant Learnerships. SACE's participation in these structures has been valuable since it represents the teaching profession and has the responsibility of taking the professional development agenda of educators forward. SACE participates actively in the SETA's various Learnerships and the ETDQA. Our participation in the ETDQA is valuable since the quality assurance of programmes offered to educators by various providers is significant to us.
- National Teaching Awards: SACE participated in the National Teaching Awards scheme at both provincial and national levels (meetings that dealt with Coordination, Planning and Review Process, Steering Committee, Provincial and National Adjudication Panels and the Provincial and National Teaching Awards Ceremonies).
The following aspects set the 2000 and 2001 National Teaching Awards apart:
* There has been a shift in the terminology used, from National Teacher Awards to National Teaching Awards
* In 2001, the Teacher of the Year Category did not exist because the focus was not on the individual teacher but teaching that involved a collective effort at school level. As a result, in some instances educators were nominated as part of teams and not in their individual capacity
* SACE visited the schools in the various provinces where the 63 finalists had been identified.
* All the stakeholders (SACE, educator unions, Associations of Schools Governing Bodies and others) participated in National Teaching Awards at various categories of the National Teaching Awards.
It was clear that the Department of Education had learnt some lessons from the 2001 experience and to a certain extent, from the 2000 National Teaching Awards process. However, there are outstanding implementation issues and challenges that need to be dealt with if the process is to run smoothly. The 2002 National Teaching Awards review process is taking a number of these challenges into consideration to facilitate the implementation process. SACE will also be contributing immensely to the review process, to ensure that educators' voices are heard.
- South African Human Rights Commission's Consultative Forum Against Racism in Education and Training
* SACE is part of the South African Human Rights Commission's Consultative Forum Against Racism in the Education and Training sector
* The Forum meets twice a year and manages to bring role players across the education and training spectrum together to collaborate and share ideas on issues of racism and antiracism strategies
* The Forum played an active role in ensuring that its members (organisations that belong to the forum) incorporated antiracism and human rights issues into their programmes and projects. As a result, the overwhelming majority of these organisations have programmes whose frameworks and strategies are based on human rights and anti-racism principles.
* In addition, the Forum worked hard to encourage its members to be part of the World Conference on Racism and to provide them with the necessary information prior to and after the Conference. Because of this, SACE also took part in the conference.
- National Professional Diploma in Education (NPDE): Upgrading of Qualifications for the Unqualified / Under Qualified Teachers
* SACE is represented on the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) driven process of upgrading educator qualifications for the un/under qualified educators in accordance with ELRC Resolution No. 8 of 2000 at the national and provincial levels. At provincial level, SACE has 9 Councillors who serve on the provincial NPDE Teams/Panels to steer the implementation process at provincial level. The provincial team is made up of representatives from the Department of Education and ELRC
* The upgrading will lead to an interim INSET qualification, namely, the National Professional Diploma in Education (NPDE)
- Update on Standards Generating Body SGB) for Educators in Schools
* SACE is part of the Standards Generating Body (SGB) for Educators in Schools
* The SGB generated qualifications for Educators in the school sector (GET and FET bands)
* The South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) registered "new" qualifications for educators in the school field on 10 October 2001.
* The SGB was given the brief to generate standards for the following qualifications in accordance with SAQA requirements for competencies constituting a standard in ETDP practices for schools.
PUBLICITY AND COMMUNICATION
SACE Outreach Programme
One of the major achievements of the Professional Development Department has been to ensure that through its Outreach Programme, educators in the provinces get to know about SACE.
The key outcomes, pivotal to the Outreach Programme were:
- improving the image of SACE, in the eyes of the educators in particular and the public as a whole
- familiarising educators with policies and legislation key to SACE's establishment
- ensuring that educators understand the role of SACE and the benefits of being a member
- clarification of SACE's dual role of being both watchdog and guardian
- clarification of SACE's current registration procedures
- re-emphasising SACE's central role in professional development
- demystifying the perceptions that educators have about SACE's "policing" role
A total number of 6434 educators attended the Outreach Programme presented at various levels in the provinces, namely, districts and regions. The decentralisation of the outreach sessions enabled SACE to reach out to many educators at regional and district levels. In total, the decentralisation resulted in 12 regions and 56 districts being covered
Most of the sessions in the regions were conducted on Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings as there was no intention to disrupt schools
All educators who attended the outreach programme received the following documents: SACE Act, SACE Publications, Revised Code of Professional ethics, Registration Criteria and Procedures and Disciplinary Procedures
There is still a dire need to target educators working in rural areas, farm schools and informal settlements. KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Northern Province and Mpumalanga are priorities in this regard
World Teachers’ Day 5th October 2001
Celebration of 2001World Teachers' Day
National Celebration: The 2001 World Teachers' Day was celebrated in Mafikeng, North West Province
- It was clear from the support received that SACE had achieved its goal of popularising World Teachers' Day in this country. We believe that we have set a good precedent and standard as Council that will make celebration of this day an annual event
- The 2001 celebration was a little different from previous celebrations because the programme was not confined to formal celebration only. We included (within the formal programme) a SACE recognition award to one teacher working under difficult conditions without receiving the necessary recognition. SACE presented the award to the teacher on behalf of all South African teachers
- In addition, we requested learners from schools around the Mafikeng District to write essays and produce artwork on the role that their teachers played in their lives. As a way of recognising their work, we provided each learner who participated in the competition with tokens of appreciation
Speakers: The Director-General of Education, Mr Thami Mseleku was the guest speaker of the day. In addition, the programme included speakers from the World Confederation of Teachers (WCT), Education International (EI) as well as the SACE Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer
Media Coverage: One of the most important highlights of the day was that we managed to get Radio Motsweding to broadcast World Teachers' Day speeches and proceedings (between 11:00 and 16:00) live on their mobile studio. Through this live broadcast, we managed to reach most of the provinces in the country. We also made use of this opportunity to publicise World Teachers' Day and other SACE activities to both educators and the public as a whole
With the assistance of Impact Communications, we developed media kits that we distributed to all the radio stations, television stations and the main newspapers in the country. As a result of this, coverage of World Teachers' Day was overwhelming.
SACE Publications
We produced 3 different publications and the 2002 SACE calendar has been distributed to all educators. The calendar was designed to publicise the SACE Code of Professional Ethics and World Teachers' Day
Annual Report: The Annual Report was published in June 2001. 2250 copies of the annual report were printed in June 2001. 1580 were distributed to various stakeholders and 750 were forwarded to the Minister’s Office for Parliamentarians.
Annual Report Highlights (shorter version): 40 000 Annual Report highlights were printed and distributed to all educational institutions
Newsletter: This year we managed to produce one newsletter in Sept/Oct 2001.The feedback received from educators was that it was excellent, both in terms of the content and information directed to them.
Ella Mokgalane
(Professional Development Manager)
FINANCE DEPARTMENT FINANCE DEPARTMENT
The revenue comprises of registration fees, membership fees and interest received from investments. The membership of R24.00 per practicing educator per annum is receivable and the registration fee of R60, 00 is receivable on registration. The Council has exempted the non-practising educators from the payment of membership fees. All practising educators including educators in private institutions and educators employed in school governing body positions are required to contribute the prescribed membership and registration fees.
EXPENDITURE
The Council faced public obligations in terms of registration backlog, backlog on reported cases as well as visibility in respect of Professional Development activities. The expenditure represents the efforts the Council has taken to address the above-mentioned public needs. The Council undertook drastic steps beyond the means of the year under review to address the profession's requirements.
REGISTRATION
Apart from the activities reflected under registration report, the following was also done to handle the backlog:
- More resources in terms of personnel and equipment were hired.
- Restructuring of office set-up to enable indoor processing of registration.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
A reasonable number of Professional Development workshops and road shows as detailed in PD report have been conducted in various provinces. In comparison with the previous years, a drastic improvement has been achieved in terms of service rendered to the public.
CODE OF PROFESSIONAL ETHICS
Disciplinary panelists have been capacitated in various provinces to enable the handling of all reported cases. This included workshops on Harassment Training and training in terms of SACE Disciplinary Procedures and Advocacy Skills. The Department conducted site investigations irrespective of geographical area and this process will be carried through into the coming year. The completion of investigations during the latter part of the year means that disciplinary hearings will be set down for the early part of 2002.
ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS
All efforts in respect of the above-mentioned three major responsibilities of the Council had a direct influence on administrative expenses.