Basic Education still working on solutions as unpaid teachers wait in limbo

The Department of Basic Education has reiterated commitment to finding a solution as thousands of general and education assistants remain in limbo and disillusioned by the delays in payments.

More than 300,000 general and education assistants were recruited nationally to work in schools due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The basic education sector was set to create 100,000 general school assistant jobs and 200,000 education assistant opportunities between December 2020 and March 2021.

Parliament’s portfolio committee on basic education last month stepped in to try and get to the bottom of why the teaching assistants had not received payment for December.

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In a statement, the department said it had embarked on urgent steps to assist provinces in ending the delays experienced in the payment process.

“The DBE [Department of Basic Education] convened an urgent meeting of chief financial officers of the nine education departments across the country on Tuesday,” reads the statement.

It has since urged all education and general assistants who are yet to receive their pay, to contact coordinators in their respective provinces.

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