The Eastern Cape Education department says it has learnt with unease of the closure of 23 schools in Port Elizabeth's Northern Areas this week by principals and community members.
Spokesperson, Mali Mtima says this was despite the department's decisive intervention by availing 122 educator posts to the district in April this year to fill all critical vacant and funded posts.
He says they have since discovered that of the 122 posts provided, only 57 had been filled to date due to various circumstances, including the shortage of Afrikaans mother tongue educators of mathematics.
Mtima said in other instances, the schools themselves had been dragging their feet and had not submitted the requested list of vacant posts and other required documents to the district office.
He told AlgoaFM news that a task team established to resolve the impasse would meet with the Education Development Officers of these schools to look at each case and to implement immediate remedial steps.
