Question NW3831 to the Minister of Basic Education

Reply:

1. Whether (a) her department and/or (b) provincial departments maintain a database of sick leave records of educators at schools for children with special educational needs; if not, (i) why not and (ii) what is the current method to track sick leave of educators at schools in each case; if so, in each province, (aa) how many sick leave days are taken on average annually, (bb) what are the top five reasons for taking sick leave and (cc) what is the average period of sick leave in each case;

1. (a), (b) and (i)

Yes, the Department of Basic Education (DBE) relies on the PERSAL system to monitor leave in general, including sick leave. The data on PERSAL is usually not up to date given the time lag between the receipt of forms at schools and such form being captured on PERSAL at district level.

(ii) Information on sick and all other forms of leave is recorded on PERSAL as part of human resource administration system. At operational level, other teacher time and attendance systems such as SASAMS and other provincial teacher systems used in the Western Cape and Northern Cape are also used to collect information on teacher attendance.

(aa) Provincial Education Departments (PEDs) have been requested to provide up to date information from their monitoring systems, it will be provided as soon as it is received.

(bb) Information requested from PEDs.

(cc) Information requested from PEDs.

2. Whether the total number of sick leave days taken by educators at schools for children with special educational needs is hampering education at such schools in each specified province; if so, (a) why and (b) what steps are being taken to reduce this negative effect?

(2) (a) PEDs have been requested to provide their assessment of the impact, based on the data, and respond accordingly.