Cape Town - Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga has warned that her department will not tolerate any form of laziness and unaccountability in the schooling system.
This comes in the wake of what the minister referred to as "a pervasive culture of resistance" to strong measures of accountability within schools.
"The system needs to improve coordination of support at all levels. Accountability must of necessity account for performance at all levels from the teacher, to the principal, to the governors, to the district, provincial and national department authorities," Minister Motshekga said.
She was tabling her Budget Vote in Parliament on Tuesday where she also lashed out at teachers who frequently bunked classes, underperforming district officials and incompetent principals.
"We are all aware of incidents whereby our schools lose valuable teaching time because of absentee teachers, incompetent principals, and under-prepared district officials.
"The culture of teaching and learning has, for all intents and purposes, disappeared in most rural and township schools," Minister Motshekga said.
Shortly after taking the reigns as the new head of government, President Jacob Zuma announced the split in education, removing Higher Education from the traditional Education Ministry.
The split, he said, would allow for a more direct focus on the two sectors.
Minister Motshekga's task would be to ensure that children received good grounding and are better prepared by the time they enter higher education institutions.
"While the teacher is undoubtedly the most important influence on learning in the classroom, the extent to which the act of teaching is nested within other supporting contexts cannot be overstated," Minister Motshekga said.
While teachers need to be on time and teaching, the schooling system needs to confront the more fundamental problems.
"These teachers we want in class on time teaching are also reported to be feeling overwhelmed by never-ending external demands on their work and making them resentful and being distracted from their work," added the minister.
But, dedication, commitment and work ethics were a key to quality teaching and learning.
"In most instances schools stand and fall at the feet of its leadership," she said
