Teachers' union rails against 2013 "post establishments"

01 Feb 2016 | Admin Author

Teachers' union Naptosa says the Eastern Cape Education Department has bowed to the pressure of balancing its budget rather than having a teacher in every class.

Naptosa was reacting today to the release of the 2013 post establishments by Education MEC, Mandla Makukupula last week.

Makupula declared 60 820 teaching positions for next year.

Naptosa's provincial CEO, Peter Duminy, says the declarations do not address concerns raised during engagements on the 2013 post establishments.

He says these include the "plight of small schools who through the distribution model would not have enough posts to present the curriculum; persistently paying lip service to the acknowledged backlogs in the system that impacts directly on the delivery of service in the classroom and the accommodation of LSEN learners in mainstream classes given the lack of districts to support the educators in whose classes those learners are."

"Naptosa, as part of the Combined Teacher Union: Autonomous Teacher Unions had argued for a minimum of the retention of the current 64752 posts.
Schools indicated in accepting their 2012 staffing from this declaration of 64752 posts that it was possible for them to present the curriculum, however more than 3000 of these posts were never filled, and parents had to make enormous sacrifices to assist their community's schools even where they could only pay a below minimum living wage," said Duminy.

"The MEC indicates that he is retaining the jobs of those who are already employed. That would indicate the Department is currently employing 60820 educators in schools. In terms of the schools response to the 2012 post declaration this is at least 3000 too few posts," he added.

He said "on face value it would appear that the MEC was forced to bow to the apparent cynical view of the provincial government that balancing the budget of an acknowledged underfunded department is more important than the prerequisite of a teacher in front of every class."

The Democratic Alliance says its is pleased, although not entirely satisfied with the announcement of only 60 820 teaching posts for the 2013 acadmic year.

"This represents a cut of 3 932 teaching posts," said DA provincial spokesperson on Education, Edmun van Vuuren.

"The DA will never condone prosesses designed for people to lose their jobs. We are still of the opinion that not all avenues were visited to prevent job losses.
This announcement of 60 820 teaching posts in the 2013 post basket is not a victory for education in the Eastern Cape," he said.