Salaries of ECD, ABET teachers to be adjusted

PREMIER Stanley Mathabatha in his state of the province address announced that his administration would commit additional resources to support the Early Childhood Development (ECD) programme, which in spite of admitting 35 500 learners per annum, still leaves the teachers underpaid.

The salary scale of ECD and Adult Based Education and Training (Abet) teachers is between R1 500 and R3 000, with Limpopo’s ECD and Abet teachers being paid on the lowest scale.

The DA in Limpopo wants education MEC Dikeledi Magadzi to review these salaries so that these teachers can be paid at the same level as their counterparts in other provinces.

DA provincial leader, Jacques Smalle said he was in possession of documents that proved that many of these teachers were being “taken for a ride”. He said the minimum salary for an ECD practitioner in the Western Cape was R6 000 a month. He further said the minimum would be R7 000 from 1 April, the start of the new financial year.

“In Limpopo, there are no plans from the department to review the salary scales of these teachers. We have noted that these teachers have tried to raise this issue with previous MEC’s, but their attempts were fruitless. We appeal to the MEC to urgently intervene and ensure these teachers get decent salaries with immediate effect,” he said.

According to information brought to CV’s attention, the salaries of all Abet educators in the Waterberg district were reduced to only R1 500 at the beginning of March without any notice from the department of education.

Education spokesperson, Pitsi Maloba said Abet educators did not earn basic salaries. He said they earned their salaries depending on the hours they worked.

Maloba said salaries would be adjusted at the beginning of April and ECD practitioners would receive competitive salaries. “Their payment depends on the hours they worked, but we are investigating these allegations.”