Union accuses Bisho of using faulty info to determine teaching posts

01 Feb 2016 | Admin Author

An association of independent teacher unions has questioned the Bhisho Education Department for apparently using faulty information to determine the number of teaching posts for the province for next year.

Earlier, Education MEC Mandla Makupula announced the post establishment for 2014, effectively slashing 5 000 teaching posts.

Schools are expected to hear today how many teachers they will be allocated for next year.

Peter Duminy of the Combined Trade Union of Autonomous Teachers' Unions says the Eastern Cape Treasury did not use the weighting system provided for in the national post provisioning norms, but rather the number of learners in the province which he said led to an under provision of 25 percent.

He adds that provincial treasury also worked with incomplete Stats SA survey figures when allocating funding for the 64 thousand 641 teaching posts declared for next year.

Duminy says the errors will become patently clear when the schools learn how many teachers they will be allocated in 2014.

"It is going to be a massive administrative struggle for the department to actually cope with those time frames in order to assists the schools to make any adjustments to their budgets. The restructuring in how to cater for those learners will also be a challenge" Duminy said.