Education MEC Mandla Makupula has announced that teaching posts at Eastern Cape schools will remain at 55796 next year.
This in the face of growing teacher shortages due to resignations and the pilot project to provide mother tongue teachers for all 11 official languages at schools from Grade 1 next year.
In the Eastern Cape, Xhosa and Sotho were introduced this year.
The 55796 available posts for next year includes thousands of teachers Makupula said were on long-term incapacity leave and sick leave as well as those nearing retirement.
Of the same number, a further 9239 were declared in surplus because they were teaching at schools where their services were not needed.
In March this year, only 2560 had been moved.
Asked how many posts remained vacant from the declared posts, Makupula said there were no official figures available yesterday.
Teachers unions and the Democratic Alliance described yesterday’s declaration as “disappointing”.
Provincial South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) secretary Mncekeleli Ndongeni said the department “was pushing parents from the townships and rural areas to the limit”.
“If they ignore the fact that teachers are overworked because they are not filling vacant posts left by retiring and fed-up teachers, more communities will be left with no choice but to do what Northern Areas parents did – lock school gates until there are teachers in front of their children in class.”
Makupula announced the teacher vacancies at a press briefing held at the Leadership Institute in Stirling yesterday.
Acting SG Ray Tywakadi said the posts were finalised after a lengthy process determined by the budget allowances.
Current teachers are first taken into account as well as the curriculum needs of schools.
Tywakadi claimed the current teacher to pupil ratio stands at 40:1. This was against a Dispatch report two months ago which revealed that at St Johns Road Primary in East London classes were so overcrowded that they needed at least 12 more teachers to meet the accepted teacher ratio of 40:1.
DA’s Edmund van Vuuren said their records showed that there were more than 2000 vacant teaching posts. He said the post basket remains a concern.
Makupula said he was aware the number would not go down well with unions, who he said were fighting for a higher number.
“I consulted with them and they had unrealistic expectations,” Makupula said.
Ndongeni said it was unfortunate that the department continued to plead ignorance to the realities such as the more than 1600 teachers who resigned in 2014 alone.
“I’m not including those who died and others that are due to retire this year. How can you claim the posts remain the same when KwaZulu-Natal managed to declare more than 98000.
“All the Eastern Cape department of education is doing is to limit the options rural children have because they base their numbers strictly on enrolment, leaving thousands of learners who want to do maths, economics at lower grades to fail, just because there are not enough teachers.
“This is so unfair, not to Sadtu but to the future of this country, our children,” said Ndongeni.
EC teacher numbers put on hold
This in the face of growing teacher shortages due to resignations and the pilot project to provide mother tongue teachers for all 11 official languages at schools from Grade 1 next year.
In the Eastern Cape, Xhosa and Sotho were introduced this year.
The 55796 available posts for next year includes thousands of teachers Makupula said were on long-term incapacity leave and sick leave as well as those nearing retirement.
Of the same number, a further 9239 were declared in surplus because they were teaching at schools where their services were not needed.
In March this year, only 2560 had been moved.
Asked how many posts remained vacant from the declared posts, Makupula said there were no official figures available yesterday.
Teachers unions and the Democratic Alliance described yesterday’s declaration as “disappointing”.
Provincial South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) secretary Mncekeleli Ndongeni said the department “was pushing parents from the townships and rural areas to the limit”.
“If they ignore the fact that teachers are overworked because they are not filling vacant posts left by retiring and fed-up teachers, more communities will be left with no choice but to do what Northern Areas parents did – lock school gates until there are teachers in front of their children in class.”
Makupula announced the teacher vacancies at a press briefing held at the Leadership Institute in Stirling yesterday.
Acting SG Ray Tywakadi said the posts were finalised after a lengthy process determined by the budget allowances.
Current teachers are first taken into account as well as the curriculum needs of schools.
Tywakadi claimed the current teacher to pupil ratio stands at 40:1. This was against a Dispatch report two months ago which revealed that at St Johns Road Primary in East London classes were so overcrowded that they needed at least 12 more teachers to meet the accepted teacher ratio of 40:1.
DA’s Edmund van Vuuren said their records showed that there were more than 2000 vacant teaching posts. He said the post basket remains a concern.
Makupula said he was aware the number would not go down well with unions, who he said were fighting for a higher number.
“I consulted with them and they had unrealistic expectations,” Makupula said.
Ndongeni said it was unfortunate that the department continued to plead ignorance to the realities such as the more than 1600 teachers who resigned in 2014 alone.
“I’m not including those who died and others that are due to retire this year. How can you claim the posts remain the same when KwaZulu-Natal managed to declare more than 98000.
“All the Eastern Cape department of education is doing is to limit the options rural children have because they base their numbers strictly on enrolment, leaving thousands of learners who want to do maths, economics at lower grades to fail, just because there are not enough teachers.
“This is so unfair, not to Sadtu but to the future of this country, our children,” said Ndongeni.
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