Parents, teachers and union members joined about 600 pupils from township high schools, as they marched to the district office of the Eastern Cape Department of Education on Wednesday, to hand over a petition to district director, Amos Fetsha.
Parents, teachers and union members joined about 600 pupils from township high schools, as they marched to the district office of the Eastern Cape Department of Education on Wednesday, to hand over a petition to district director, Amos Fetsha.
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The march, through the city centre to the offices on the corner of St Aidan's Avenue and Milner Street, came after staff cuts had left entire classes without teachers for hours at a time, and follows Monday's march by pupils of Mary Waters High.
The department began the school year by announcing that not only had they decided not to re-hire the temporary teachers on whom many schools rely extensively, but that the scholar transport and school nutrition programmes had also been suspended.
Pupils, joined by their teachers and parents, and supported by local representatives of trade union federation Cosatu, made their presence felt in the city on Wednesday, blowing vuvuzelas and singing freedom songs. They waved placards that read, “Bring back our teachers now”; “Education delayed is education denied” and “We demand back scholar transport.”
Siyabonga Jam, a pupil at Nombulelo High School addressed the crowd, saying that officials from the department had visited his school and promised to look at the problems, but had not told them anything. “We are not here to negotiate, we are here to demand," said Jam, to the applause of the protesters. "We demand an explanation as to why we do not have teachers.”
Nombulelo has lost four teachers, Mary Waters High is short of 11, and CM Vellem Lower Primary School is down by seven teachers. Nomkhitha Mayekiso, a Grade 11 pupil at Nombulelo, described the situation at her school. “Learners spend most of the time outside the classroom, because there are no teachers to teach them," she said. "We attend three classes per day, and there are no textbooks, making it difficult for us to do our school work,” explained Mayekiso. "Yet they will expect us to pass at the end of the year."
Another Grade 11 pupil at Nombulelo, Siphamandla Nogqala, echoed Mayekiso's sentiments. “We will get poor result, because there is no teaching and learning,” said Nogqala.
Meanwhile, Nondithini Dyongwana, a parent who had joined the march, was furious. “Our children are not getting an education. We are forced to buy the stationery, there's no feeding scheme, and there is no scholar transport,” Dyongwana said.
Another parent, Nobom Boyce, said the number of teachers left was inadequate to address the needs of all the pupils. “My son is in Grade R, and there are 72 kids in his class. How do you expect a teacher to reach all the kids?” asked Boyce.
Cosatu leader in the province, Paul Notyhawa, read a list of grievances and handed over the petition to Fetsha, who promised to forward it to the provincial department of education. Notyhawa said those in power should respect teachers, because they themselves had come through the hands of teachers. “Our children cannot go to school, because the government took away their teachers,” said Nothyawa.
He said education was a basic need of the nation. The petition demanded the reinstatement of all temporary teachers, and the scholar transport programme with immediate effect, as well as the immediate delivery of learner-support material.
The pupils vowed to disrupt the annual assessment if their demands were not met. Accepting the memorandum, Fetsha said the problems had to be addressed by the provincial education department and promised to get back to the learners once he received a response from it.
Meanwhile, chairperson of the Schools Governing Body Association in the Cacadu district, Thobile Klei, urged parents to help their children in the fight for education. “When children fight this battle, parents must lead the struggle,” he said.
Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga apologised on Monday for the ongoing education crisis in the province. A statement from her department said she had sent senior officials from the national basic education department to help the province deal with transport for pupils, school nutrition, the distribution of textbooks and the supply of teachers.
