Sadtu stages sit-in
Currently, there are 32 637 teachers in the province and the ratio per teacher is 30 pupils, which the department wants to increase to one teacher to 32 pupils.
Members of the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) of the Fiki Khanyile branch have delivered a petition to management at the Gert Sibande District Offices.
In the petition, Sadtu calls for the withdrawal of the discussion document by the Mpumalanga Department of Education (MED), which has led to union members picketing at the district offices since last week from 11:00 to 14:00 daily.
Branch chairman Mr College Mavimbela said Sadtu as a union in the province was aggrieved by the department’s document which says it is in the process of retrenching 1 400 teachers in the province by changing the post provisioning norm.
Mr Mavimbela said this norm is the allocation of teachers based on the number of pupils.
“Currently there are 32 637 teachers in the province and the ratio per teacher is 30 pupils, which the department wants to increase to one teacher to 32 pupils.
This will mean more than1 400 teachers might be unemployed next year, which is what we are fighting against,” said Mr Mavimba.
The MED has also placed a moratorium on office-based positions where, if an official relinquishes a position by either promotion, retirement or death, the position will not be filled due to a lack of money.
Mr Mavimbela questioned the move, saying those positions were budgeted for and would continue to be funded.
He added that the district office had been without an appointed director since 2014.
“There is a chamber resolution, collective agreement number one of 2014, wherein parties in the agreed that all employees of the Department of Basic Education would automatically be appointed permanently once they had served for 12 months, but the post provisioning norm will scupper all of that, ” explained Mr Mavimbela.
According to Mr Mavimbela, temporary teachers would be the first target, if the MED forged ahead with its decision.
When asked what this meant for those studying for teaching, he said there was no hope for them, if the department had its way with the discussion document.
Mr Mavimbela stressed that their picketing does not affect the examinations currently underway as their members first facilitated the processes before attending the picketing.
He said should the department not respond or come to the party, they would intensify their call by picketing for longer hours.
“We are prepared to go to a full blown strike and close schools should the MED refuse to negotiate with us,” he said.
Sadtu calls on the MED to, among others, source additional funding conversion to permanent status be appointed as such.
