Africa-Press – South-Africa. A North West teacher who was found guilty of violating exam rules by giving Grade 11 pupils the answers to an upcoming life orientation exam, has failed to have his dismissal reversed through arbitration.
The Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC), a bargaining council that serves the public education sector, heard the dispute in February this year after an internal disciplinary hearing ended with the dismissal of the teacher, Motsamai Blondie Maake.
According to the ELRC arbitrator, Ntjatja Klaas Aphane, Maake was employed at Tlotlang Thuto Secondary School in Bona Bona village.
He was fired in December 2021 after he was found guilty of:
But Maake referred the matter to the ELRC to have it resolved through arbitration.
The education department called four witnesses, including a former pupil, Maake’s previous direct supervisor and the school principal.
The supervisor, who is also head of department (HOD) at the school, testified that she discovered that Maake had been lagging behind with his life orientation teaching duties.
She asked him to submit a recovery plan for two chapters or topics so that his pupils could catch up before the June exams.
But, according to the HOD, Maake failed to do so. She said she caught him leaving the staff room and taking question papers to his classroom.
Worried that pupils would fall behind, she went to the classroom to check if Maake was implementing the recovery plan.
The arbitration award papers read:
The HOD checked with two pupils to find out who had given them the memorandum. Both of them said Maake had given it to them.
According to the HOD, Maake had also warned the pupils against bringing the papers to school and told them he would get into trouble with school management.
The HOD reported the matter to the principal.
The principal corroborated the version of the HOD and testified about the steps taken against the teacher.
Maake’s former pupils testified that he had given them the memorandum as class work.
While they were busy, the HOD came into their class and found Maake seated on a desk in front of the pupils.
The pupil said the HOD took two books away and left. The HOD later called the pupils to ask who they had received the memorandum from.
Aphane said the principal then advised the HOD to call the provincial subjects advisor and bring to her attention that the school would not be able to write the paper.
Aphane said:
“The provincial subject advisor then arranged for the school to write a different paper. The school did not write the same papers as other Grade 11 learners from other schools,” said Aphane.
During the hearing, Maake also called two pupils as witnesses.
They testified that the HOD had given them the papers and that Maake was ill on that day after he had the Covid-19 vaccination.
In his testimony, Maake also accused the HOD of taking question papers to his classroom.
He said the principal had threatened his other witnesses, who were also pupils at the school.
Aphane found that the testimony of the pupils Maake had called was “questionable and suspicious as it was riddled with inaccuracies, inconsistencies and lies”. This included that the one pupil would not have been in Grade 11 at the time, and that he had a different life orientation teacher.
“How could one witness contradict himself so much and still place value on his testimony? Certainly he was not credible and honest and therefore his evidence not probable,” he said.
Meanwhile, he said, the pupil, principal and HOD who had testified on behalf of the department were highly credible.
He found that Maake had failed to adhere to the annual teaching plan which caused the pupils to fall behind and that he then gave them the memorandum.
“The conduct of the applicant (Maake) was harmful and [did not advance] the interests of education.
“The respondent (department) was within its right to subject the applicant to a disciplinary process. Credible evidence adduced point to [the] commission of misconduct, which borders on dishonesty and undermined the educational system.”
Aphane found that Maake’s dismissal was procedurally and substantively fair and that his conduct was deceitful.
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