Most provinces fail to test wannabe school principals
Just 7% of candidates for school principal posts around the country have undergone competency testing. Democratic Alliance MP Gavin Davis said on Friday that 103 out of 1 435 applicants had been tested‚ according to the 2015/16 Annual Report for the Department of Basic Education which was tabled in Parliament.Out of those tested‚ all were from the Western Cape‚ he said.“The failure to implement competency testing for principals is in defiance of a letter from the director-general to all provincial heads of department on 27 January 2016. The letter requested that competency assessments must be part of the selection process for the appointment of principals from 2016‚” he said.He suggested the competency test had not happened in 93% of cases because the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) had been allowed to “call the shots in our education system”.“It is obvious that Sadtu is exerting its muscle in weak provinces to block principal competency testing‚” he said.The blocking of principal competency testing underscored a need for Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga to formally table the “Jobs for Cash” report in Parliament‚ which revealed how the union had “captured” provincial education departments...
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