There are still outstanding issues that have to be addressed between the department and the unions. What are they?

These are process matters, which must be negotiated with parties to the education labour relations council (ELRC), the chamber in which negotiations between the department and unions take place. There are matters that must be concluded by June 30 this year, including:

  • The newly created Education Management System for school-based principals and deputy principals. This category will conclude a performance agreement and in future salaries will be transformed into an inclusive flexible remuneration package system. This will ensure greater accountability by school management. Parties are negotiating the details.

  • Further refining the dates on which pay progression (based on the performance at school level as evaluated by school managements) and accelerated pay progression (based on an additional performance assessment by the provincial department of education, which could mean a bigger increase) will be paid.

  • As learner performance will form part of the teacher evaluation instrument, parties need to agree on the weight of the standard.

  • Further refinement of the requirements for promotion, appointment and upgrading of educators.

  • Further details needs to be worked out for the upgrading of the qualifications of underqualified educators so that every educator obtains an M+4 qualification (matric plus four years' training) by 2012.

    In simple terms what are the key areas that the OSD agreement covers?

  • Educators will receive an average salary adjustment of 5,5%.

  • No educator will be worse off than he/she was on December 31 last year.

  • A minimum salary adjustment of 4% will apply.

    Increases range from 4% to 9,9%.

  • This agreement also introduces a new salary structure with the implementation of the specialist stream (teaching and learning specialist with an honours degree and senior teaching and learning specialist with a master's). These are educators with between 10 and 15 years' experience who must perform at the level of "outstanding" because they would coach and mentor fellow educators.

  • The maximum salary to which a teacher can progress is also extended to R263 280.

    In essence the OSD puts in place a career path model that does not entail automatic increases, but is forward looking in increasing salaries based on performance, qualifications, scope of work and experience. It provides for a dual career path in which professionals and specialists can progress to levels where they earn salaries that are equal to/or higher than those of managers without moving to managerial posts. The OSD will allow education departments to address the challenges of attracting and retaining educators.

    It has taken you a very long time to conclude this deal, what were the reasons for the delay?

    As this is a new dispensation, it was necessary to have in-depth discussions on many issues.

    What tools would be used to determine if a teacher's performance was "good", "satisfactory" or "outstanding"?

    The tool is the Integrated Quality Management System. This instrument is part of a collective agreement signed in the ELRC in 2003.

    Given that the signing of the OSD agreement marks the beginning of a seemingly long process, which aspects of it would be easy to implement?

    This is not envisaged as a long process, rather one of further fruitful engagements. It is difficult to say which aspects would be easy to implement since there are different time frames for different aspects. The salary adjustments would be the first to be implemented.