By Lee-Yandra Paulsen
Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Basic Education has praised the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) for launching a nationwide investigation to verify educators across the country.
Last month, the council began auditing more than 22,000 public schools to identify so-called ‘ghost teachers’ and to probe allegations that teacher posts are being sold for up to R25,000 each.
Speaking to VOC News, Committee Chairperson Joy Maimela said the probe is critical to strengthening accountability within the education system.
“Well, we received a briefing yesterday from the Department of Basic Education that the ELRC, had its own meeting. When they were discussing the issue of cost constraints and post-provisioning, they took a conscious decision that they need to conduct a probe of this nature. This is to ensure that they verify the number of personnel that are in the system, but also, most importantly, the number of teachers and the number of learners. And that is going to improve the ability of the department to plan but also to deal with the issue of post-provisioning.”
Maimela added that the committee has heard allegations of ghost teachers before, which makes this investigation all the more important.
“These allegations about ghost teachers have been made several times, even in our own committee. Some members of the committee have made these allegations. As a result, it was important for us to welcome this very important intervention. If indeed they find evidence of such, it is a criminal matter. Somebody knowingly committed fraud, syphoning money from the state. Those funds could have been used to employ more teachers, particularly in schools battling overcrowded classrooms.”
The committee said it will monitor the investigation closely to ensure accountability and transparency.
Listen to the full interview below:
VOC News
Photo: Pixabay
