By Daanyaal Matthews
The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) has been inundated with complaints following the announcement to cut over 2 000 teaching positions in the province, with the department arguing that this is a necessity given the lack of funding from the national Treasury. The number of teachers that would lose their jobs would be more than the number of schools in the province, with some schools reportedly having to lose almost half their teachers, leading to unanimous condemnation from unions and civil society.
The largest teaching union in SA, South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU), has challenged the department, arguing that while the austerity measure of the national treasury was a hindering factoid in the provincial education sector, the department had failed to introduce changes that would mitigate the damage austerity would cause. Sibongile Kwazi, Provincial Secretary for SADTU in the Western Cape, has epitomized this by discussing the nature of contract positions, which, she argued, could have been converted to permanent posts to provide more security for educators.
“It’s true that there is no retrenchment tool in the public service, but when we are talking about contract reachers, whose contracts will not be extended, we are not talking about people that are in a job for a month or two months; we are talking about teachers who are qualified to be permanent when they have been in a post for three months and they are suitably qualified for the post. IT is the same WCED who delayed the conversation of these teachers to a permanent status so that they can have job security,” argues Kwazi.
The lack of job security for educators largely negatively impacts the children who will be faced with situations wherein they will not be served with quality education, as any teacher that remains in their post will not be able to provide efficient and quality education in classrooms that are overcrowded and under resourced. An argument that has been concurred by WCED Spokesperson, Bronagh Hammond, stating:
“This environment, when we are working so hard to recover from COVID-19 and the learning losses experienced there, and we were on the right trajectory, but now to decrease the teacher basket will have an impact on learner-teacher ratios in the classroom, and that will affect teaching outcomes.”
The way forward now becomes ever more confusing with the unions and civil organizations, demanding immediate rectification of the situation and for the cuts to be significantly lessened. SADTU has followed suit by declaring a dispute at the Education Labour Relations Council with the option of industrial action not off the table.
