EC teaching posts crisis looms

A drop  in the number of posts declared by Eastern Cape education department head Mandla Makupula will result in 3000 fewer teachers at schools next year.

This was the warning from DA MPL Edmund van Vuuren amid ongoing discussions between the provincial education department and the South African Democratic Teacher’s Union (Sadtu).

Eastern Cape education spokesman Malibongwe Mtima had not responded to questions at the time of writing.

Van Vuuren warned that schools would be overcrowded as a result.

He said there were already 2800 fewer teachers and a further 1000 fewer teachers was expected next year.

This was a result of the lower number of teaching posts declared by Makupula this year.

Sadtu provincial administrator Chris Mdingi said the union had taken a decision to oppose Makupula’s declaration.

Mdingi said the union had made a submission during consultations before the declaration that it wanted Makupula to keep this year’s number.

The number of jobs has been cut from 55796 to 54747 in 2016.

Mdingi said the union had resolved to embark on a protest if the department failed to revert to this year’s numbers.

“We are frustrated. This is causing problems at schools.”

Last month close to 200 men and women from Mount Frere schools travelled for hours to the provincial capital to fight for their children’s education.

“We are not buying faces. We won’t rest. We will make our voices heard,” Mdingi said.

He said the department’s excuse that there were dwindling numbers of pupils in the province because they were moving to the Western Cape and Gauteng was inaccurate.

United Democratic Movement provincial chief whip Thando Mpulu said the party did not support decreasing teacher numbers.

Mpulu said the department had to deal with the problem of moving excess teachers to where they were needed.