Picketing parents lock out teachers

Thirteen schools have closed in Port Elizabeth's troubled northern areas over an ongoing teacher shortage protest.

Parents picketed in Stanford Road yesterday, waving placards reading " MEC is taking us for a ride". Some w ere stationed at the gates of schools to prevent teaching from taking place.

Pupils were told to go home.

Principals and teachers gathered at the Gelvandale and Bethelsdorp police stations to fill in affidavits, claiming they had been locked out by parents.

Concerned that the situation was spiralling out of control as more schools joined the protest, the Northern Areas School Governing Body chairman Andrew Sauls feared a third force was at play.

"Many of the schools that have resorted to locking their doors this week are actually no longer affected by the teachers shortage," Sauls said.

"The department has come to the party over the last two weeks or so. One can't help but think the whole action has a political undertone, with parents rallying behind politicians to disrupt education in the northern areas," he said.

"Yes, some schools got teachers but others did not," Cedarberg Primary School's governing board chairman Damien Daniels said.

"Until every vacancy is filled, parents will keep fighting. If we don't see results this year, we will sit with crowded classrooms, overworked teachers and a substandard education."

Although some schools have decided to complete the Annual National Assessment test that is under way, Astra Primary School, Bethvale Primary School, West End Primary School, Sanctor Primary School, Rufane Donkin Primary School, Republiek Primary School, Greenville Primary School, Papenkuil Primary School, Kroneberg Primary School, Sapphire Primary School and Booysen Park Primary School have been closed indefinitely and are boycotting the tests.