WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2008-05-09 Time: 00:00:00 Posted By: Jan
By AYANDA MHLONGO and RIVONIA NAIDU
Eduction experts have warned that if the education department gives into teachers at a Newlands East school it could set a “negative precedent”.
Since the start of the second term on April 14, teaching at Roseland Primary School was suspended because of a strike by teachers. The teachers are protesting against the school’s revamped security system, saying the CCTV cameras had been installed in their classrooms without their consent.
Senior lecturer and researcher at the University of KwaZulu-Natal who specialises in teacher education and professional development Dr Labby Ramrathan said if the education department and the school’s governing body (SGB) gave in to the teachers’ demands and removed the CCTV cameras it would set a negative precedent.
“If that happens it would have harmful implications for future problems that may arise in other schools,” he said.
Ramrathan said he had no problem with cameras being installed in classrooms, and teachers should not say these cameras are an “invasion of their privacy” because a classroom “has been and will always be a public space”.
Teacher unions have also stepped in to try to resolve the problem.
South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) provincial secretary Sipho Nkosi said an urgent meeting to discuss the matter had been called by the union’s regional leadership and community leaders.
On Monday, officials from the Department of Education met with teachers at the school and forwarded a directive from education MEC Ina Cronje who ordered teachers to return to their classrooms.
Despite this, teachers did not return to classrooms on Tuesday, prompting pupils to protest and toyi-toyi in the corridors and outside the principal’s office.
Meanwhile, pupils at the school are concerned that failure to resolve the crisis will be detrimental to their education.
“We have missed so much work already and if our teachers won’t teach us with the cameras in classrooms, then the cameras must come out,” said one of the senior pupils.
On Tuesday, some parents who were standing in the school’s parking lot said they never wanted cameras in the classrooms and that decision was made by the principal and the school governing body.
Chairman of the SGB Linda Ntombela said: “I suspect those parents were asked by teachers to come to the school and speak against the revamped security system. Last week the SGB met with about 300 parents and they all said they want the cameras in classrooms to remain.”
He said another meeting with parents will be held this evening.