Cape Town - The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) has defended its plan to cut teaching posts in 2025, saying they were not firing or retrenching teachers.
Following an uproar over its announcement that 2 400 teaching jobs would be cut next year due to a budget shortfall of R3.8 billion, Education MEC David Maynier said the department would work closely with schools to determine which teachers would be affected.
“The reduction in posts will mean that some contract teachers will not be reappointed after their contracts end on December 31, 2024, and some permanent teachers will be asked to move to another school where there is a suitable vacancy.
“We are in this position because we are being short-changed by the national government, receiving only 64% of the cost of the nationally negotiated wage agreement, leaving the province to fund the remaining 36%,” Maynier said.
The department said the budget cuts left them with the responsibility of funding the remaining 36%, and said despite implementing a R2.5 bn budget cut, including on administration, curriculum and infrastructure, they would still face a R3.8 bn budget shortfall over the next three years.
Maynier further explained it was not only the Western Cape that was affected.
“KwaZulu-Natal has indicated that they currently cannot afford 11 092 of their educator posts and have a budget shortfall of R4 bn for this year alone. They have since reduced Norms and Standards payments to schools and delayed paying service providers.
“Mpumalanga has a budget pressure of R876 million that it must resolve, while the North West has to find R485m.
“The Northern Cape has had to, according to the wording of their presentation to the portfolio committee, implement a ‘drastic removal of a large number of vacant posts’ from their organisational structure, but still won’t be able to deal with their shortfall.
“Gauteng has indicated that they will have to reduce learner transport, and they will not be able to expand Early Childhood Development coverage as planned.”
Maynier said he raised the matter at the Council of Education Ministers for urgent action.
SA Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) provincial secretary, Sibongile Kwazi, said while all provinces were suffering, they believed the Western Cape could’ve done better.
“There were a number of proposals the union laid on the table, one was the termination of the Back on Track programme, which seeks to address learning losses due to the Covid-19 period, this only catered for a certain percentage of learners and needed tutors and sometimes even travelling and nutrition allowance.
“The other area is the annual systemic evaluations, which is done yearly, they could have had the evaluations every third year to save costs and save the livelihoods of those many young teachers.”
“This will have a domino effect on the whole system, we will have overcrowded classrooms, we predict up to 60 learners in a class, this will affect the quality of education, as well as the well being of the teachers and learners. And who will be affected?
“The schools in the townships, the Cape Flats and the rural and farming areas.”
tracy-lynn.ruiters@inl.co.za
Cape Argus