By Odwa Bafana Mkentane
NAPTOSA has called for the Department of Education to ensure that they send out a message to say nobody is welcome to march into a school. This comes after the March movement, which has called for teaching posts to be reserved only for South Africans during their media briefing on Monday.
Speaking to VOC News, NAPTOSA Executive Director Basil Manuel says if people think there are undocumented teachers, they must report the matter to the authorities and not take law into their own hands.
“I know that they (Department of Education) have sent circulars out in various provinces. We meet tomorrow again to talk about various things around the safety of children and vetting and things like that, and we will make that call again in a face-to-face meeting. That’s exactly what we want, and it’s a requirement. You can’t come from a foreign country and simply just walk into a post. If somebody does that and succeeds with that, we want to know who they are so that the proper authorities follow up on it. But I will guarantee you nobody sitting in a state post that has not gone through the proper processes,” Manuel said.
Manuel said that teachers have to go through a vetting process and be registered with the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) and South African Council of Educators (SACE) to be employed by the Department of Education as teachers.
“They must be registered with the South African Council of Educators, and in order to be able to do that, you must have a work permit, or you must have permanent residence, and then only can you access a post, and that is why the appeal is there – there are authorities to do this work. If you think people are undocumented, go and report it and let the authorities do it properly. What we do know is that from the very fear factor we have had some teachers leave, people who have, who are fully documented, left when that threat was at its peak around the 30th. And unfortunately, some of those schools have not been able to replace them,” he said.
Photo: NAPTOSA
