Sorry comrades, the pupils' interests must come first

The talk coming out of the Gauteng legislature is encouraging. Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi has told the house that he wants to curb the power of unions in the education sector.

Many of the unionised teachers behave as if they were a law unto themselves.

The time has come to talk about the taking over of our public institutions by political interests.

We are encouraged when Lesufi says that political influence and the interests of the unions should not take precedence over the effective running of schools.

Recently we have heard of union members selling teaching posts, and of senior positions being awarded to those with union backing.

We are told that this tendency has become the norm in our public schools - you can't secure a senior post if you don't belong to the "right" union.

Lesufi should be supported in his campaign to bring dignity back to teaching.

One can only hope that his efforts to clean up the provincial education system presages a national campaign to put the needs of pupils before those of unions.

Too many unions have forgotten their true mandate - to help workers. They are now involving themselves in running the country and politics has clouded their vision of their day-to-day activities. We see them trying to wriggle out of conflicts of interest in parliamentary debates.

Lesufi will find it difficult to deal with the less-than-altruistic culture of ANC politics.

He can expect his comrades to campaign against him. He must also expect information leaks. We have been on this road before and we know how the comrades operate.

If we are to wrest back our schools from political opportunists we must not relent. Nothing will change if no one is prepared to put his neck on the line.

We hope that Lesufi will have the courage to do so and bring back to our schools the culture of "education first".

The power of the teachers' unions must be checked before their agendas completely overwhelm the basic principle of providing our children with a sound education.