It a case of deja vu for several Grahamstown schools, as they face a shortage of temporary teachers for the second year running. At the beginning of last year, the provincial education department failed to renew contracts for more than 4 000 temporary teachers.
It a case of deja vu for several Grahamstown schools, as they face a shortage of temporary teachers for the second year running. At the beginning of last year, the provincial education department failed to renew contracts for more than 4 000 temporary teachers.
They were later reinstated, but then received letters from the department informing them that their contracts would not be renewed for 2012. Mary Waters Secondary School is one of the worst affected, having lost 11 teachers as a result of the cuts.
Principal Samuel Wessels, told Grocott's Mail that teacher numbers in the school dropped from 38 teachers last year to 27 this year. "We find ourselves in a similar position to last year, because contracts for our 11 temporary teachers have expired," he said. "We know that the department is busy trying to fix this problem, but it's going to take time."
In Nathaniel Nyaluza Secondary School, in Fingo Village, one of the two temporary teachers who teaches Geography in Grade 12 is back at work, while his counterpart, who teaches Grade 12 Life Sciences, didn't. According to the school's principal, Mangaliso Nkwinti, one of the reasons given by the education department is that they are both Grade 12 teachers.
Nombulelo Secondary School principal, Mthuthuzeli Koliti, said the school asked the education department to reinstate their three temporary teachers whose contracts had not been renewed. "We have used the provision that allows schools to request the reinstatement of teachers. The three teachers are currently at school and we are awaiting a response from the department," said Koliti.
Not far from Nombulelo, at CM Vellem Primary School, principal Ntsiki Mphahlwa-Mene is worried because seven temporary teachers at the school did not come back. "All our temporary teachers are not back this year after they received letters telling them not to return to work," said Mphahlwa-Mene.
She said the department told them it had conducted a “staff establishment”, which helped them determine how many teachers a school needed. “So we are waiting for them to get us teachers from schools that are over-staffed.”
Benjamin Mahlasela school in Extension 7, Joza, was not affected, because it did not have any temporary teachers. Meanwhile, the department issued a statement this week, saying it was currently issuing letters of employment to more than 500 temporary teachers from 10 districts.
The department said officials at the head office had confirmed that these teachers were indeed qualified and registered with the South African Council of Educators (SACE). "This is an interim measure meant to ensure that all our schools have a teacher in front of all our learners, while the process of finalising the process of post provisioning continues.
"This entails the movement of teachers who are excess posts to schools where their services are urgently required," read the statement. The department said this would eventually enable them to have a reliable profile of teacher needs in the province, and thus be in a position to issue a valid recruitment bulletin that would result in permanent employment in the vacancies.
