The future of more than 2,400 teachers facing possible retrenchment in the Western Cape continues to draw debate.
Warnings of court challenges have been made with some opposition parties in Parliament and people on the streets of Cape Town also weighing in on the matter.
Build One South Africa says a possible solution to save teachers’ jobs is to reduce the bloated cabinet.
During Cosatu’s recent National Day of Action, the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) participated in the Western Cape march.
There they warned of possible legal action to prevent the cutting of teacher’s posts in the province.
Western Cape Deputy Secretary Kenny Williams say they won’t give up the fight to save the jobs.
“So, we will keep on fighting for these posts even if we need to approach the courts in the country we will do it. We are busy with it. So, that’s our next step and of course, the last resort is to go out for a strike against the decision.”
In Parliament, some lawmakers say the job cuts in education would pose a threat to the learner-teacher ratio, which is already too high.
ActionSA Member of Parliament’s Basic Education Committee, Lerato Ngobeni says, “There is not one individual teacher that can handle 80, 75, 90 kids in one classroom … Now, what we are basically saying is that our educational standards – low as they are – we are at the threat of them even going lower. Because there is no human being, a teacher, who can look after children who are unable to read for meaning at the age of 4, 5 and Grade R and in the first years of their learning. Which means they need individual attention. Even with the best intentions, a teacher who has that number in one classroom is not able to deal with them,” adds Ngobeni.
With South Africa said to have the largest National Executive in the world, BOSA suggest a reduced cabinet, whilst redirecting this expenditure towards basic education.
“If you want to make your country unable to perform, cut on education. Our view is that we have prioritised cabinet expenditure, we have now got the largest cabinet in democratic history. We have also given departments money for support staff whereas it is not proportionate to their budgets. And ultimately, when you look at the census data, when you look at each provinces you are discovering that provinces like Western Cape, Gauteng and KZN, are experiencing more and more citizens coming into those provinces and yet the budget is not keeping up. So, what we have got to do is cut the cabinet, cut wasteful expenditure, stop departments that are returning money and ensure that you focus that expenditure on education. If we don’t skill our people, we kill our people. We make sure that they are not economically viable and ultimately they end up lingering in poverty.”
Maimane says poor public schools will bear the burnt, if teachers jobs get cut.
We also caught up with some residents in the streets of Cape Town for their views on this issue.
“They should not be cutting teachers, they should increase teachers. It would be very difficult for teachers to manage classes because in public schools, you would find that there are learners more than 46 learners per class and you can’t really manage a class of that. It’s not beneficial for the children because it also impacts the children, on their learning and their growth at the end of the day. There will also be no growth for the children and the entire country. So, I think that it’s never gonna work for one teacher to obviously teach 200 children, because it’s gonna be chaos.”
With departments and entities expected to present their annual reports and financial statements for the 23/24 financial year this week, the debate on cutting teacher posts is expected to continue.
The Ministry of Basic Education will come under scrutiny, when times come to present their annual report before the parliamentary Committee.
Thousands of teaching posts are at risk:
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