Our hands are tied, we have no choice but to reduce teacher posts – WCED

By Loushe Jordaan Gilbert

The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) is pleading with teacher unions not to protest the province’s teacher employment reduction. Budget constraints will force the department to eliminate 2400 teaching positions before the end of the year.

MEC David Maynier said striking will not make up for the fact that the government is underpaying them.

“Striking will not change the fact that we are being short-changed by the national government, which only provided 64% of the cost of the wage agreement negotiated nationally with unions, leaving the province to fund the remaining 36%. Even if we cut all the programmes suggested by the teachers’ unions, we would not come anywhere close to dealing with the massive R3.8 billion budget shortfall. The situation is critical. If we do not take drastic action to cover the massive shortfall, we compromise our ability to pay for our bills, which includes the salaries of teachers,” he explained.

Speaking on VOC Breakfast, Queen’s Park High School Principal Nicolene Abrahams said her school will also be affected, even though they already have a small staff compliment.

“We do not have so many teachers, and we already face challenges when one of our teachers is off sick, as this now means that another teacher must oversee two classrooms, over those in more senior grades who are left to their own devices. The WCED added mobile classrooms with two additional teachers and the promise was that these teachers will be at the school until those learners reach matric, and due to the budget cuts, those teachers will leave. This places extra pressure on us because we have close to 100 learners to now see to, with two teachers leaving the school,” she stressed.

Speaking to VOC News, parents said the budget cuts and the reduction of teacher posts will have a dire impact on their children who rely on teachers to provide quality education.

“What would our classrooms look like next year, we already see how overcrowded classrooms are and how the number of students outweigh the number of teachers, what is government thinking,” an upset grandmother shared.

“Did anyone think of how the economy will be affected, we already have a high unemployment rate in the country and now we are adding more than 2000 people to that list,” a parent stressed.

“Why is it that in South Africa has these issues. We do not see this anywhere else. What is our future looking like, the quality of our education at present leaves much to be desired, and now we are making matters worse by letting our teachers go,” a single dad shared.

Abrahms further stressed that educators play a significant role in the lives of learner, that goes above and beyond their working hours.

“People need to realise that teachers play so many fundamental roles. We are parents to these children, some act as providers, therapists while others are an escape from the challenges that our children face, children that come from communities where abuse, drugs, alcohol and violence is rife. The teacher reductions have severe consequences for these learners because who are they supposed to turn to if teachers are retrenched,” she added.

VOC News

Photo: Pexels

Picture of Aneeqa Du Plessis
Aneeqa Du Plessis

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