Despite imposing budget cuts across the board the Western Cape education department (WCED) says it still faces a R3.8bn budget shortfall over the next three years and is left with no choice but to cut more than 2,400 teaching posts.
The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) last week said it rejected with contempt proposals by the department to reduce the 2025 educator posts with poor working-class communities bearing the brunt of the reduction.
Provincial education MEC David Maynier said: “We are doing everything we can to fight for our teachers, but 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%, resulting in a massive [education department] budget shortfall of R3.8bn.
He said budgets had been cut, including on administration, curriculum and infrastructure.
“We have also frozen the recruitment of most public service staff, encouraged schools to convert contract appointments, and restricted the appointment of substitute teachers. Despite implementing a drastic R2.5bn budget cut, we still face a R3.8bn budget shortfall over the next three years,” said Maynier.
“We will have no choice,” he added, to remain fiscally stable, but to reduce the basket of educator posts by about 2,400.
The individual circumstances of schools would be taken into account when determining their allocation of teachers.
“While we acknowledge the reduction of the WCED budget, we believe that the employer did not explore all areas where they could reduce spending. Sadtu Western Cape proposed areas in which the provincial education department could redirect funding from, for example, scrapping the Back on Track programme for 2025, putting the Systemic Evaluations on hold, as well as the implementation of no penalties for educators who exit the system at the age of 55 years. Unfortunately, there is no political will from WCED to free those funds to fund educator posts,” said the union.
Sadtu warned that cutting posts would have “dire consequences for the poor working-class schools that are already overcrowded and cannot afford to employ additional school governing body (SGB) staff. Overcrowded classrooms will affect the wellbeing of teachers and result in an increase in disciplinary challenges at schools.”
TimesLIVE
Kim Swartz
www.timeslive.co.za
