Comments on: Teachers strike looms ever closer……

By: Kerry

Kerry — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 07:41:26 +0000

Chris, you make a good logical argument with regards to the finances. Whether they can actually afford it I don’t know. But who is to say that if the increase is granted, that this time next year or even 6 months from now, teachers down tools again and demand even higher salaries and grants and hold the education system at ransom once more?

This is the governments response to what the increase will do to the budget.

“At the time Baloyi said government could not afford to meet labour’s wage demands because this would push the salary bill way above what the state has budgeted for. The state has budgeted R11,2-billion for salary increases and R845-million in housing allowances.
If the employer accedes to labour’s demands, it is projected it would spend R17-billion on salary increases alone and R3,5-billion for housing allowances.”

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By: Kerry

Kerry — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 07:29:33 +0000

Good point Louise. My argument is that, teachers knew from the beginning that the pay is not that great, and a lot of teachers are actually doing it out of the kindness of their hearts, they wanted to make a difference with the children of this country, mold their thoughts and ideas and influence them in a positive way, that is why you go into teaching to begin with, it’s certainly not for the magnificent salary. I believe if you don’t have the following values, you shouldn’t go into teaching to begin with. What type of example are you setting to the students that you are teaching, it’s ok to protest and throw stones at other schools that refuse to strike or it’s ok to down tools when things aren’t going that ‘peachy’. But that’s as I say, just my opinion.

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By: Editor

Editor — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 06:42:11 +0000

On one hand I think it’s unfair to the students but on the other hand I think we’ve just spent BILLIONS on the soccer world cup. Can’t we afford then to pay these teachers a little more? With rising living costs, people are struggling and teachers for one are not doing this job out of the kindness of their hearts! They need to earn a living too and we can’t afford not to have them..

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By: Chris M

Chris M — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 06:40:35 +0000

I think it’s dodgy, the government goes on about injecting billions of rands into education and I know there’s a lot of work that has to be done, but what’s the point of injecting all that money if the teacher’s will be striking anyway.

My knowledge of the economy isn’t spot on, so I can’t calculate what the cost to goverment would be if there was an increase from 6.5 to 8.6, a 2.1% increase could be millions of rands, which might make it not possible, but I doubt that.

Teacher’s are paid really badly in general, I think it’s important for them to receive the increase, afterall, if they strike and don’t teach correctly, how will our youth achieve in their final exams? They won’t. How will that play out later? Our country will once again suffer in the skill set area.

Tricky one, they need some mathematicians and economists up top their in the government who know what they’re doing so they can sort this kind of situation out!

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