By Loushe Jordaan Gilbert
The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) announced the cut of over 2400 teaching positions from next year due to a budget shortfall of R3.8 billion over the next three years.
According to department head Brent Walters, the department is responsible for covering the remaining 64% of the public sector compensation agreement’s cost. The department has already put a hold on hiring non-teaching employees and on expenditure in all its directorates.
“We have done everything we can to fight for our teachers by imposing budget cuts across the board, including on administration, curriculum and infrastructure. We have also frozen the recruitment of most public service staff, encouraged schools to convert contract appointments, and restricted the appointment of substitute teachers. Despite implementing a drastic R2.5 billion budget cut, we still face a R3.8 billion budget shortfall over the next three years,” he added.
Vanessa Le Roux, founder of Parents for Equal Education South Africa (PEESA) said the educational sector in the Western Cape is officially in a state of crisis.
“Annually we sit with so many children that are displaced, at the start of the year they terminated more than one thousand contracts in the foundation phase. More than 80 000 learners will be affected by this, what will our classrooms look like next year in terms of the teacher to learner ratio,” she stressed.
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