‘E Cape schools almost 2,000 teachers short’

Legislature’s portfolio committee on education slams department for not budgeting sufficiently to fill vacant posts

Eastern Cape government schools are short of almost 2,000 teachers, including more than 350 principals.

The provincial education department has come under fire from the legislature’s portfolio committee on education, which slammed it for failing to budget sufficiently to fill vacant posts at schools.

The department had told the committee that this financial year it would only hire to fill 80% of its vacant posts, though it later backtracked, saying this had been a clerical error.

The committee is expected to table its report in the legislature, where it wants to compel the department to fill all its vacant posts.

If the report is accepted by the legislature, the department will have 30 days to reverse its decision to leave positions vacant for the rest of the year.

In addition, said committee chair Mpumelelo Saziwa, the number of teachers this year was to be reduced from 53,605 posts in 2022/2023 to 52,817 in 2023/2024.

There are already 1,794 vacant teaching posts which the department will not fill if it sticks with funding just 80%.

“On the 80% they say they are going to fill, we are saying no: we want 100%,” Saziwa said.

He said when the committee had asked the department what it would do with the rest of the schools that would still have vacancies, the department said it would use other measures, such as using teacher assistants to do the work.

Saziwa blamed the department for a lack of planning.

“We do not accept that ... it’s an indication of poor planning on their part because they [should know] the number of children in their system,” he said.

Saziwa said he had even advised the department to link up with the departments of health, social development and home affairs to ascertain the number of children of school-going age for the upcoming years, so that it could plan better for infrastructure needs and teachers.

DA MPL Yusuf Cassim said the other issue they had with the department was that they took too long to fill even posts they had committed to filling.

“Parents are closing down schools across the province because posts go [unfilled] for months and months.

“The biggest issue with the current budget, which is why we will oppose it, is that even though they increased the amount for the cost of employment, that’s mostly to cover leave benefits and so forth,” he said.

The Dispatch spoke to principals across the province who confirmed delays in the filling of vacant posts.

The principals, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said to fill one post could take up to two years.

Some have resorted to using school governing bodies (SGBS) to fund critical posts.

“There are a number of vacancies, especially in the bigger schools. There is a lot that has to be done when filling a post; it also includes replacement,” a principal in BCM said.

“Teachers who are in excess must be placed elsewhere.”

He said this caused delays as some teachers did not want to move.

A principal in the Chris Hani district said he had to bypass processes and do recruitment himself after one of his teachers died in 2020.

“If a teacher dies it takes years to fill the post, unless the principal takes the initiative and gets a teacher from somewhere else as a straight transfer.

“They rarely hire new appointments,” he said.

He said in some smaller schools, a teacher could teach nine or 10 different learning areas in a year.

Siyabulela Senior Secondary School in Ngqamakwe is among the schools facing a teacher shortage in the province.

SGB member chief Siyabulela Sobhekwa said pupils were suffering as there were three teacher vacancies at the school.

Sobhekwa said candidates had finally been shortlisted on Thursday for the position of principal.

“Interviews will take place next Tuesday,” he said.

Teacher union Sadtu’s provincial secretary, Malibongwe Ntame, said because of the delays in recruitment, they had agreed with the education department to have “walk-ins” ,a process where schools directly advertise and appoint teachers instead of waiting for the province to publish a bulletin.

Only principals and deputy principals’ positions were advertised through the province, he said.

“On promotional posts there are delays. But we have an agreement that, at least quarterly, they must issue a bulletin for promotion posts,” he said.

However, education spokesperson Malibongwe Mtima defended the department, saying the 80% was a clerical error and that they had, to date, filled 97% of vacancies.

“Moreover, the department has published two posts for promotions, advertising 366 vacancies for principals, 131 for deputy principals and 425 for departmental heads.

“In addition to the above, the department had absorbed 299 professionally qualified grade R educators.

“It is worth noting that there are 420 post-level educators that have been appointed with effect from May 1,” he said.

“The department notes and acknowledges that the target of 80% was wrongly captured, and it will be corrected during the adjustment period.

“However, to demonstrate its commitment, the department has filled posts above this target,” he said.

We do not accept that ... it’s an indication of poor planning on their part because they [should know] the number of children in their system