LYDENBURG – The Mpumalanga Department of Education recently informed teachers in the province that about 1 400 posts would be terminated in 2017.
On account of the unexpected job cut, teachers and members of the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) from Mashishing, Skhila, Kellysville and surrounding farm schools have been on strike at the public works offices since last week.
According to a source, the department has decided to terminate these posts without consulting any of the teachers on the decision. “The sum of 1 400 jobs are equal to the personnel of 50 schools. These terminations are on account of poor planning.
Since the department’s announcement on the job cuts, it refuses to talk to the teachers about the matter. What they want to do is push up the ratio to one teacher to 32 children. It will later also increase to a one-to-35 ratio. As it is at the moment, Mashishing already has a one-to-80 ratio. Now they want to dismiss even more teachers? We decided that this cannot happen and that is why we have embarked on the protest against the decision,” he said.
It will later also increase to a one-to-35 ratio. As it is at the moment, Mashishing already has a one-to-80 ratio. Now they want to dismiss even more teachers? We decided that this cannot happen and that is why we have embarked on the protest against the decision,” he said.
He said that people should understand that teachers were not protesting about salary increases. “It is a complete maladministration on the department’s side. Its intention is just to get rid of these teachers.
“Those who have been appointed on part-time basis, have also been notified that their contracts will also not be renewed. I suspect that the department has misappropriated money and now has to rectify this by cutting jobs.”
Mr Solly Mathotho, branch secretary of Sadtu in the Bohlabela region, confirms these allegations. “We rely on the department’s declarations for each coming year. The department has now stated that it will be cutting over and above 1 400 teaching jobs. How did they do the calculations? They are tinkering with the teacher-learner ratio.
“They did that with the administration posts last year. We are still questioning that as well. This will highly compromise quality education. Sadtu stands for public quality teaching. Those who will be most affected will be the farm and township schools.”
He said that teachers’ workload would increase dramatically resulting in the exploitation of labour. Laerskool and Hoërskool Lydenburg will not be directly affected by this. They are in the position to hire extra teachers through the school governing body if need be.
“We are finding ourselves at the receiving end of this decision.”
Mathotho said that Mashishing schools were not coping as it was with the current teacher-learner ratio. “You have teachers attending to over 68 pupils in a class. We asked that the decision be reviewed, but it has not been done. It is difficult because we live in a time where capitalists are at the head of the steer.”
Mr Gerald Sambo, communications spokesman for the department, told the newspaper that he was not yet in a position to respond to the allegations. “Sadtu would hand over a memorandum on Thursday (yesterday) to state their grievances. We request that you allow us time up until next week Monday to respond to the issue. We have not yet received the formal complaint and I am thus not able to respond to the matter at this stage.”
“Sadtu would hand over a memorandum on Thursday (yesterday) to state their grievances. We request that you allow us time up until next week Monday to respond to the issue. We have not yet received the formal complaint and I am thus not able to respond to the matter at this stage.”
