The Department of Basic Education has come underfire for failing to fill more than 30 000 teacher vacancies at schools across the country.
This was described as “unsurprising” by the official opposition, which said as many as 70 pupils shared one teacher at some schools.
“This starkly shows the ANC’s disregard for basic education, and it is, sadly, unsurprising that our real matric pass rate sits at 55.3%,” DA MP Baxolile Nodada said.
Nodada made the statement after Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga provided the number of unfilled positions. Nodada had enquired about the total number of teacher vacancies nationally and a breakdown for each of the provinces.
He also enquired about plans to fill the vacant positions in each case.
In her response, Motshekga said there were 31 462 teacher vacancies.
KwaZulu-Natal led the pack with 7 044 vacancies, followed by the Eastern Cape which recorded 6 111 and Western Cape 4 497.
Limpopo recorded 4 933 vacancies, Gauteng 3 898, Mpumalanga 1 931, North West 1 205, Free State 1 117 and Northern Cape 726.
Motshekga said the filling of vacant posts at schools was an ongoing process to ensure that there was no class without a teacher across all grades.
She said for the post-level one vacancies, schools were allowed to recruit at local level and immediately as the vacancy occurred, and even to make temporary appointments when necessary.
“These appointments are then made permanent upon ensuring that the educator meets the requirements of the post. By law, a temporary appointment in a vacant substantive post must be made permanent after three months.”
Motshekga added that, in the case of promotional posts, schools were allowed to make acting appointments, especially for critical posts such as those of departmental head and principal while the formal recruitment and selection process was undertaken.
“In addition, in order to address immediate workload challenges that result from vacant promotional posts, schools are allowed to appoint temporary educators against a vacant promotional post until the vacant promotion post is filled,” she said.
Nodada said unfilled vacancies resulted in classroom overcrowding, which explained why some schools had been reported to have up to 70 pupils with one teacher.
“Unfilled vacancies, however, are just the tip of the iceberg, as public schools are significantly short of infrastructure. Pupils are forced to sit in unsafe classrooms, use pit latrines, as well as share furniture, textbooks and stationery. These lead to terrible educational outcomes for children, as 81% of Grade 4 learners cannot read for meaning,” he said.
Nodada noted with concern that teacher vacancies were concentrated in poorer, more rural provinces such as KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape.
He stated that provinces also could not fill their vacancies, as their budgets had been slashed. “For instance, the Western Cape’s budget has been cut by almost R900 million by the national government, which has seen its higher rates of vacancies.”
Nodada said while the ANC touted the Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill, the proposed legislation would only worsen educational outcomes.
Motshekga said her department did not collect information specific to vacant teaching posts in science, technology, engineering and education.
Cape Times