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Department of Education Action Welcomed

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The Democratic Alliance, through its persistent and continuous debates and interaction with the Department of Education, is pleased to announce that more than 1 500 of 2 103 temporary educators have, as an interim measure, been appointed in substantive vacant posts.

This will relieve the pressure on those schools with a dire shortage of teachers responsible for teaching critical subjects, such as Mathematics, Physical Science, Accounting and English.

We appeal to the Department to have the outstanding 603 temporary positions filled as a matter of urgency.

However, it is with regret that teachers that are in excess are not complying with re-assignment letters issued to them, but have instead decided to remain at their old schools where their services as per the post provisioning are not required. They are robbing the receiving schools of much-needed human resources. Furthermore, Sadtu has in its misplaced wisdom decided to embark on a go-slow.

The DA welcomes the decisive stance of the Department that it will withhold salaries from those who refuse to teach or move to their receiving schools. All teachers have been contracted to work at least seven hours per day, and their refusal to adhere to policy, can and must be seen as abdication of their educational responsibilities. Parents were never consulted about the union’s action. These parents have placed their little ones in the supposedly caring hands of teachers. The actions of Sadtu must be unapologetically rejected and cannot be condoned by those that have education of our children at heart.

The DA agrees with the Department that it should intervene decisively to stop this illegal action by approaching the courts to issue an order declaring the actions illegal, and to hold principals and teachers accountable for any disruptions at schools.

It is a fact that Sadtu is using our learners as cannon fodder to settle scores with the Superintendent General of the Department of Education in the Eastern Cape, Advocate Modidima Mannya.

It is also an undeniable fact that the Eastern Cape is the worst performer in the Grade 12 results. This in itself is an indictment of the perilous state of education in the province. The feud and acrimonious relationship between Sadtu and Advocate Mannya will dump our dismal education into a deeper hole, from which it will never be retrieved again.

It is time that our learners are put first, irrespective of disagreements not settled, as our learners have been denied the opportunity to get off the ground, since the dispute between the mentioned antagonists.

Edmund van Vuuren, MPL

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Port Elizabethan

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