KwaZulu-Natal has more than 7000 teacher vacancies, the highest in the country, however, the Department of Basic Education has emphasised this did not mean that pupils were left unattended.
In a parliamentary question, Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga was asked by DA MP Baxolile Nodada, who sits on the portfolio committee on basic education, about the total number of teacher vacancies provincially and nationally.
Motshekga said in total across the country, there were 31462 teacher vacancies.
She said KZN had the highest number with 7 044, followed by 6 111 vacancies in Eastern Cape, 4 933 in Limpopo, 4 497 in the Western Cape, 3 898 in Gauteng, 1 931 in Mpumalanga, 1 205 in North West, 1 117 in the Free State and 726 in the Northern Cape.
The minister said for Post Level One vacancies, schools were allowed to recruit at local level once the vacancy occurs and make temporary appointments.
“These appointments are then made permanent upon ensuring that the educator meets the requirements. By law, a temporary appointment in a vacant substantive post must be made permanent after three months,” she said.
In the case of promotional posts, Motshekga said 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 is undertaken.
National Professional Teachers' Organisation of South Africa (Naptosa) KZN chief executive Thirona Moodley said the union was concerned that many of the vacancies exist in KZN.
“There is no reason why these posts have not been filled as they are part of the posts of the school.These are funded posts so finances are not an excuse. This is a failing administration.”
Moodley added that many of the posts are filled by temporary educators and this does not augur well for the stability of the schools or other educators who are expected to carry the load.
“This places a huge burden on those educators. Ironically there are thousands of unemployed qualified educators in the province. The minister has made this public announcement and she now owes the public the strategy to remedy the situation.”
SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) general secretary Mugwena Maluleke said the filling of vacant teacher posts was a complex process.
“When the minister says that a teaching position is vacant it doesn’t mean nobody is in the position. It just means that a teacher may be acting in that position on a temporary basis but the post is still termed as vacant. The employment of teachers is a recruitment process so its not a simple process to just say fill the post.”
Maluleke added that the other issue was that if the post was being filled on a temporary basis; it may not be advertised. “If a teacher is acting in a post for a temporary basis and it goes longer than three months then the position can’t be advertised as those teachers will need to be made permanent. Where we have a problem is the promotional posts that are not being filled as that is holding up other teachers not getting employed.”
Basic Education spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said that there were no teacher posts that have a person absent.
“Every post has someone there, all that is happening is we are making sure that those people are permanently employed.”
Mhlanga added that there are two categories of posts: “Post level 1 is the entry-level post for teachers where a school can make an immediate appointment. There are also promotional posts which include heads of department, principals or deputy principals that take longer like three to six months to fill.
These posts have to be advertised, the recruitment process has to unfold. Those are some of the reasons for the delays.”
Nodada said unfilled vacancies lead to overcrowded classrooms.
He added that the vacancies were concentrated in poorer, more rural provinces like KZN and the Eastern Cape.
The Mercury