As of Monday next week, all temporary teachers who were removed from their posts are to be reinstated within two days. This is what the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) is demanding of the Eastern Cape Department of Education in a draft agreement that was signed by both parties on Wednesday.
The agreement was signed by Sadtu, other teachers unions and the education department. Sadtus provincial deputy secretary, Nolitha Mboniswa said 4 000 temporary teaching posts will have to be filled next week. Last year the department overspent its budget, which resulted in the temporary teachers being fired, the suspension of scholar transport and termination of school feeding schemes in the province.
Mboniswa said that a statement outlining everything that is scheduled to happen in schools will be released today (Friday). When asked if the union was not afraid of what might happen, due to the dire state of the education departments finances, Mboniswa told italGrocotts Mail/ital that these vacant posts were budgeted for at the beginning of this financial year last April.
If they mismanaged the money that was budgeted for the these posts its not our problem; all we say is that the posts have to be filled. Commenting on the departments crisis, Rhodes University Education Professor Marc Schäfer said it is a double edged sword. He told italGrocotts Mail/ital that the financial crisis makes it understandable why government cant pay the teachers, but that cannot be justified because it is unacceptable.
On the other hand, he said that teachers using strike action or the go-slow at the expense of school children is immoral and tragic for the children. He believed that other measures should have been taken to resolve the issues at hand in a more professional manner.
Schäfer further said that temporary teachers should be reinstated because there is already a shortage of teachers in the department. Although Sadtu and the education department seem to be making headway, the teachers union is still holding meetings. Yesterday all pupils from the township schools in Grahamstown were sent home at 10am so that their teachers could attend a meeting at Nombulelo Secondary School in Joza.
