A short-staffed Grahamstown school is counting itself lucky as a similarly beleaguered school in the province was forced to shed around a dozen teachers this week.
A short-staffed Grahamstown school is counting itself lucky as a similarly beleaguered school in the province was forced to shed around a dozen teachers this week.
Many pupils at Alphendale High School in Pefferville, East London, will return to school tomorrow to find they have no one to teach them. The teachers received the shock news when they reported for duty on Monday.
Those of the 13 staff members paid by the school governing body were told there was no more money to pay them. Others were casualties of the Eastern Cape Education Department's new move to do away with temporary teachers.
The governing body of Grahamstown's Mary Waters High School was a fellow applicant in a July 2012 court case against Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga. The case, heard in the high court in Grahamstown, sought to force the minister to implement existing policies on teacher posts – known as 'the 2012 educator establishment'.
In his 3 August ruling, Judge Clive Plasket ordered that the department of education should fill vacant teacher posts by 2 November 2012. Pending these permanent appointments, the department was ordered to appoint temporary teachers by 2 September.
The Judge also ruled that the department pay outstanding salaries, and reimburse schools for the salaries they had been paying.
The department failed to implement the order.
Further exacerbating Alphendale High School's predicament is the fact that parents owe it around R1.6 million in school fees. Principal Clive Prince told Grocott's Mail about the decision to shed 13 staff members.
“Due to lack of funds we cannot accommodate them any more," Prince said yesterday. "Some of the temporary teachers' contracts ended in December last year – but I saw them coming in today to report. I had to tell them that we cannot afford to pay them unless they were willing to help us until we get teachers.”
Prince said he'd received no response to the letter he sent to the provincial education department last year.
“I was telling the staff this morning that I am uncertain about the school this year. I have teachers who have been on temporary disability leave for eight years now and they are still on our payroll… I also informed the department about that and nothing positive came from them,” Prince said.
“We have meeting after meeting but nothing is solved. We have had no secretary for five years now. I must do the work of the secretary.”
Regarding the unpaid R1.6 million in school fees, Prince said he had informed the school governing body, which would hand over the matter to debt collectors.
In a similar predicament last year, Mary Waters High School needed 11 teachers. School governing body chairperson Errol Goliath said they had interviewed nine teachers for these posts, which had been approved by the department.
