In 2012, a court ordered the provincial Department of Education to place advertisements for hiring teachers by 30 September and fill the positions by 31 January 2013.
In 2012, a court ordered the provincial Department of Education to place advertisements for hiring teachers by 30 September and fill the positions by 31 January 2013.
Mary Waters has 11 vacant teaching positions, yet only five of those have been filled.
Leon Trompeter, chairperson of the Mary Waters Crisis Committee, asked Grocott’s Mail on Wednesday, “How can the department expect the children to pass when there are no teachers? How is it legal for a school to not have teachers?”
Trompeter also said that they are awaiting confirmation for the meeting with the MEC or superintendent to discuss these issues.
Another problem is a lack of fencing, which is a security issue for the learners.
The Crisis Committee met on Tuesday with the district director, Amos Fetsha, to discuss the crisis.
Fetsha provided documents exonerating his office from blame and instead laying it at the door of the provincial office in Bisho.
In her state of the province address, on February 22, Eastern Cape Premier Noxolo Kiviet talked about the urgent need to transfer additional educators to needy schools, but also warned parents from locking up schools and sending children away.
“And if they do that, there will be consequences,” Kieviet said.
The South African Schools Act of 1996 also compels every parent to send their children to school and criminalises non-compliance.
Cameron McConnachie of the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) said that they are taking legal action with regards to the contempt of court by the department.
The LRC is representing the schools affected by the shortages.
However, McConnachie said he disagreed with the locking up of the school and felt it was not the right way to go about this issue, as some education is better than no education.
