RESPONSE
1 (a). The bench mark study tour was initiated and funded by the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) to assist the research work currently underway in the ELRC. Four(4) countries were visited, namely Finland, Singapore, Canada and Brazil.
(b). The engagements with the countries various departments took place from 26 February 2018 to 9 March 2018. The dates were as follows:
(c). At an Education Indaba in 2017 that was organised by the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC), three streams of work were identified to be undertaken to address challenges relating to education provisioning and related matters. One of these pertinent matters is post provisioning, which has become one of the difficult issues in the different provincial education departments in South Africa.
In addressing the issues raised by the Post Provisioning Commission at the Education Indaba, the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) commissioned desktop research to assess how international countries have approached post provisioning challenges, managed compensation of teachers and adopted effective distribution models within their education system. Based on the research, the four (4) countries that were identified that could best assist South Africa with its challenges and provide possible solutions.
During the visits three (3) focus areas were concentrated on primarily because of the South African context. The areas were:
2. (a). The names of the departmental officials were the following:
The names of the union officials were the following:
The teacher unions identified the officials that were to attend on their behalf and they were invited separately from the DBE officials. The information on how the union officials were identified therefore needed to be obtained from the unions.
(b). The departmental officials were chosen because of their expertise and responsibility in either post provisioning, human resource management, early childhood development and finance. Unions were required to identify their own representatives.
(c) (i). The entire benchmark study tour was orgainised by the ELRC based on the resolutions taken at the Education Indaba 2017. The ELRC funded the entire study tour. There were no financial implications for the Department.
The Department is not in a position to provide the cost for each delegate on the benchmark tour.
(c) (ii). See (c) (i) above.
3. A detailed report with findings and recommendations were drafted by the ELRC with inputs provided by the delegates. A copy of the report may be requested from the ELRC.