DURBAN - THE South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) has rejected the use of an app for recruitment purposes and called for the Department of Education in the province to go back to basics and use manual methods of recruitment.
Sadtu provincial secretary Nomarashiya Caluza said while the union supported the app for purposes of keeping the database of unemployed teachers available for employment, it rejected it on the basis that it lacked transparency.
“There is no transparency as to how someone sitting at the department head offices selects five people from a database of thousands of unemployed teachers.
“Sadtu is objecting to the app based on the understanding that the appointment of teachers is guided by the Employment of Educators Act, which requires the head of department to match and place excess teaches temporarily and then the Personnel Administrative Measures (Pam), which allows the department to advertise posts,” she said.
Caluza said it has always been a trend that schools received at least five names from the database of unemployed teachers to interview for the level one teacher posts.
The department started a database of qualified unemployed, where they registered their names to be considered for employment.
Sadtu highlighted the challenges of connectivity issues and the possible threat to the ability of unemployed teachers to access the app.
“Teachers complain that they are ignored as people who would have joined after them would get employment.
“We have identified things that are a problem with the database. It is unfortunate that some of the challenges that schools are currently faced with are as a result of rushing into the use of the app, extending what it was intended for, to now be used as a recruitment or appointment tool,” said Caluza.
She said the question was who would buy the gadgets for all schools to use the app.
“It is only now that we see the MEC piloting and giving some school principals the tablets.
“This is not enough considering the changing methods of teaching imposed by Covid-19. We still maintain that the app cannot be used for recruitment and appointment purposes.”
Department spokesperson Muzi Mahlambi said they always conducted consultations with all stakeholders and the same procedure was conducted before the app was launched.
He said the idea of the app came after consultation with teacher unions at the Labour Relations Council. Mahlambi said that they raised their concerns about the app, which has been improved, and it was agreed on as a programme that could be implemented.
“We had our reasons, as the department, which emanated from the selling of posts and other allegations. As a response to those allegations, we had to come up with a way of mitigating against the findings of the task team headed by Umalusi Prof John Volmik, which probed the matter of jobs for sale.
“We still maintain that since the introduction of the app, we have observed a reduction in these allegations.”
Daily News