The Citizen reports that although teacher unions don’t condone the shocking figures of absenteeism among their members, they say there are a number of contributing factors that lead to absences.  

These needed to be addressed in order to ensure 10% of classrooms were not left without teachers daily.  Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga released the findings of the 2017 School Monitoring Survey (SMS) on Monday and pointed out that the trend of teacher absenteeism from classrooms throughout SA grew marginally, remaining a cause for concern.  SA Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) general secretary Mugwena Maluleke said that, although the union did not support or condone absenteeism, certain contributors like violence and depression could not be evaded.  “There is violence in schools that [teachers] need to deal with and they are helpless because they lack support from government.  There is also a high level of sickness among teachers who experience depression,” Maluleke pointed out.  National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of SA (Naptosa) general secretary Basil Manuel said it was important to contextualise and understand the sub-optimal conditions teachers worked in.  “We do acknowledge there are some who are those who take advantage, but there are those who have valid reasons,” noted Manuel.

• Read the full original of Chisom Jenniffer Okoye’s report in the above regard at The Citizen
• Read too, Teacher absenteeism rises, on page 9 of Sowetan of 9 April 2019

Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page