In the interest of pupils at Transoranje School for the Deaf, a parent contacted the Democratic Alliance (DA) Gauteng shadow MEC for education, Khume Ramulifho MPL to help. She said she could not sit around and do nothing.
Last week Wednesday Ramulifho and DA Tshwane constituency head, Solly Msimanga MPL visited the school after it was discovered the school had a shortage of teachers for grade 1 and grade 4 pupils.
“I contacted the DA because I read in the newspaper about a school they had helped in Pretoria and hoped they would be able to help the school find teachers for the pupils,” parent, Elmarie Langenhoven said.
Langenhoven’s son is a grade 4 pupil at the school. She said the first day of school she was contacted by the principal to let her know about the shortage of teachers.
“I asked the principal if there is nothing they can do and he said they tried their best but the department says there are no money to pay teachers. Our children need attention more than normal children and it was upsetting to hear there are no teachers for them,” she said.
At the meeting last Wednesday the DA discovered the school’s grade 1 and 4 classes were without permanent teachers after the department of education let three teachers go.
Ramulifho promised the school to help them in resolving the matter by taking it up with the MEC of education, with whom they have a good working relationship.
“We will take this matter up with the education department and give them some time to respond to the matter, but if nothing gets done we will take the matter further,” Ramulifho said.
The school’s governing body (SGB) chairperson, Ferdie Boshoff, explained there were 34 classes at the school with only 25 teachers and seven SGB appointees.
“In grade 1 the teacher has to rotate between the two grade 1 classes because we are short of three teachers. While the teacher is busy with another class we have a class assistant helping in the class without a teacher.”
Boshoff said they have raised the matter about teacher shortages, but the department said there was no money.
“One teacher cannot handle 28 pupils, each pupil needs special attention. There is supposed to be six pupils per class so a teacher is able to focus on each individual, but some classes have to accommodate ten pupils,” Boshoff said.
“The school is short of teachers, physiotherapists and occupational therapists. The teachers that were let go specialised in the foundation phase, a critical phase for children with special needs. To expound the problem, a new curriculum was introduced by the department, however teachers were not trained on how it should be implemented. This has placed an inordinate amount of pressure on the few dedicated staff at the school,” Msimanga said.
He said all the issues will be raised with the education department that has ten days to get back to them on a solution to the problems.
Since the school is now considered a heritage site it will be undergoing an upgrade from 24 February, which will be paid for by the department of education.
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