DA calls for dept. to fill vacant teaching posts
According to DA Provincial Leader Jacques Smalle, there are 1 705 vacant teacher posts that need to be filled urgently.
LIMPOPO -In a statement issued by Smalle, the Education Department’s failure to fill vacant posts of teachers of core subjects is worrying.
He states this is a clear indication that the quality of education is consistently being compromised under the leadership of the MEC, Ishmael Kgetjepe.
The statement was issued by Smalle after approaching Kgetjepe to urgently reinstate teachers whose temporary contracts came to an end.
“We want the MEC to fill the 1 705 vacant teachers posts, for temporary but essential teachers, across the province. A crisis is brewing if so many teaching posts are left vacant as the 2017 academic year progresses further and further. Five months have now passed since the provincial treasury gave the department permission to fill the posts, or extend existing contracts, in September 2016,” he said.
At New Look Primary School in Extension 71 in Seshego, 18 temporary teachers’ contracts were not renewed without reason, resulting in 18 vacancies, according to Smalle.
New Look Primary school has enrolled more than 1 200 learners and the remaining 19 teachers are now forced to teach up to four subjects per day in overcrowded classrooms without adequate resources such as desks and chairs, while the temporary teachers remain idle at home, he said.
“The classes at New Look that these 18 teachers used to monitor have been cancelled while learners have had to be transferred into combined classrooms. In the previous year when the schools still had 37 teachers, one classroom used to cater for more than 60 learners but now the number has increased to more than 80 learners sharing one classroom due to a lack of teachers and classrooms,” he said.
In another example, Mamodikeleng High School in Ga Molepo currently has no maths and science teachers.
The school’s poor pass rate can be largely contributed to the fact that these learners are forced to study on their own, without any teachers in these subjects.
Failure by the department to renew their contracts compounds the teacher shortages especially in the rural areas of Limpopo, Smalle said.
According to the Spokesperson for the Department of Education, Dr Naledzani Rasila, the province has 3 820 schools and a shortage of maths and science teachers is a countrywide problem and that is why foreign skilled teachers are employed.
He said foreign teachers renew their contracts every year.
“Renewing is also determined by them if they qualify to be in the country or not. We are closing the gaps of shortage of teachers but it should be done accordingly. If a teacher is working temporarily, surely the contract will lapse one day and it is upon the shoulders of that teacher to re-apply following the very same procedures,” he said.
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