Parliament, Thursday, 10 October 2024 – The Portfolio Committee on Basic Education today engaged the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) regarding its proposed plan to cut 2400 educator posts in 2025.
The Chairperson of the committee, Ms Joy Maimela, indicated that the committee is concerned about the impact the proposed reduction of teaching posts will have on quality education especially in poor and historically disadvantaged areas of the province.
She said the committee requested a detailed breakdown of the geographical areas where these teacher posts will be cut, the subjects that will be affected and the impact the cut of teaching posts will have.
The committee also raised concerns about information it received regarding the late placement of some learners. It heard yesterday from a school principal in Nyanga-East that 170 Grade-8 learners in the Metro-East education district were placed in schools in July of this year. “We were outraged when we heard this. How could learners be denied education like this in a democratic South Africa,” asked Ms Maimela.
Today, officials of the WCED denied late placement of a learner arguing that the latest they placed learners was in March 2024. The committee requested full details on the late placed learners this year in the province.
The committee asked that the report should indicate areas learners are coming from, their race, gender and also indicating time the applications were made and the response. Ms Maimela said: “We cannot have learners for long periods of time out of the classroom and expect them to pass.”
The committee also reprimanded the officials of the WCED for their absence at schools that were visited by the committee yesterday. “We visited three schools yesterday where questions related to the provincial competency that were supposed to be answered by you were unanswered. We regarded that as a sign of disrespect,” Ms Maimela emphasised.
The committee visited Batavia Special Needs School, Lansdowne and Witsand Primary in Atlantis and Morrisdale Primary in Ceres.
It commended Batavia School management for the excellent work they are doing in imparting skills and knowledge to learners in order for them to support themselves once they are out of the schooling system. The school offers hairdressing, woodwork, welding, panel beating and front office skills. Ms Maimela said it was encouraging to note that the school takes the interests of learners serious and the committee expressed its happiness to the school management.
At Witsand Primary School, the committee heard that although the school has over 800 learners, as it is a quintile 4 school, the National School Nutrition Programme subsidies only apply to 150 learners. The committee requested a full report on how a school for learners who come from poor homes deserving a feeding scheme that covers all learners, but reaches a very limited number of learners.
The last school that was visited by the committee today was Morrisdale School in Ceres where it was confronted with a group of disgrantled parents who told it that learner transport for both the school and Ceres Primary School was unceremoniously stopped. They told the committee that they made interim arrangements, but they fear for the 2025 school year as they are poor. The committee asked the WCED to reconsider its policy within 14 days to ensure that deserving learners get transport.
Ms Maimela told the officials of the WCED that as the “Imagine a Grade-R education is going to be compulsory from next year, it will be grossly unethical to force learners of that age to travel distances as long as 4 KMs. She said: “There are special circumstances like farming areas that should be taken into account. Policy cannot be theoretically applied, but should be realistically applied. We don’t want to create dropout learners.”
Yesterday the committee visited Walter Teka Primary in Nyanga-East, Joe Slovo High in Khayelitsha and Rosendaal High in Delft. The oversight visit continues tomorrow in the Cape Winelands.
ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON BASIC EDUCATION, MS JOY MAIMELA
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