Representatives of school governing bodies in Port Elizabeth's northern areas presented a memorandum of demands to the Eastern Cape Education Department on Friday.
These include issues related to teacher shortages, financing of schools, infrastructure requirements as well as administrative matters and mother tongue tuition.
At the same time teachers from the Adolf Schauder Primary School presented a seperate memorandum to acting district director, Mpakamisa Hlekani, on the non-payment of some teachers for the past six months.
In a brief address he told the teachers that they would be notified next week about their payment.
Meanwhile, the plight of schools in Port Elizabeth's northern areas has found the support of the religious community.
Religious leaders from the Northern Areas Ministers Forum were also present at today's meeting.
Spokesperson, reverend Tyrone Strydom, told Algoa FM News, that issues affecting schools in the area are intertwined with many of the social problems in the northern areas such as gangsterism and drug and alcohol abuse.
"This thing goes much deeper than teachers not being paid, twenty years from now the very children that are not receiving proper education today will be economically inactive, they will not be able to afford a house, they will not be able to afford a car, they will not be able to build a proper functional family for their future, so I think it is much deeper and the rights of our children are being compromised here" Strydom said.
