Learning resumes at Umlazi school after 'surplus' teachers cause chaos

Normality returned to Umlazi Comprehensive Technical High School (ComTech) in the south of Durban as teaching and learning resumed on Thursday after three days of chaos forced its closure.

The school was closed since Monday as parents blocked access, calling for the department to fix the issue of surplus teachers who refused to be deployed to other schools and caused chaos.

The stand-off continued until Wednesday when the provincial education department announced it had terminated the contracts after the teachers refused to accept the decision to move, even after “all avenues to persuade them to move” were exhausted.

According to the department, the surplus teachers who refused deployment were given 24 hours to report for duty at their designated schools but some refused.

“Unfortunately a decision to terminate their services has been reached and they are no longer welcome to come to Umlazi ComTech,” the department said in a statement.

Speaking to TimesLIVE at the school on Thursday, department spokesperson Muzi Mahlambi said 12 of the 23 teachers had been dismissed.

“At first there were 23 of them that were declared surplus but they have been moving one-by-one until the 12 that remained yesterday [Wednesday] whose contracts were terminated.”

Teaching finally resumed — albeit with a heavy police presence looking on — after the department was granted an interim order on Thursday morning.

“This morning we got a court interdict barring them and anyone who has nothing to do with teaching and learning from coming here without prior arrangement. If they come here they will be charged with trespassing,” said Mahlambi.

He added that the police presence — at least 10 cars in and around the school, from both the SAPS and the municipality’s public order police — was necessitated by social media messages about potential union disruption.

He said teachers were declared surplus because of the decreased number of students at the school and a shortage of teachers with their skill sets at other schools.

“This is a process that happens in all schools in KwaZulu-Natal where we take some educators from schools that have fewer pupils than in previous years and redeploy them where their services are needed.

“We are not saying your contract is terminated but we are saying your services are over-supplied where you are, so go to another school where your services are most needed.”

He explained the importance of teachers heeding the call to be redeployed.

“If they don't move they are robbing children who are waiting for them and it makes it hard for the department to determine how many vacancies are available in which schools. So they were told of the implications ... we told them we would take action if they continued.”

Khetha Mjodi, the KwaZulu-Natal co-ordinator of the Congress of South African Students (Cosas), said their only priority was to see the culture of teaching and learning maintained.

“So we are here to ensure that teaching and learning is continuing as per the promise of the department and we are happy to be seeing just that. We are not interested in the internal politics of the school.”

He was also pleased that there is a clear recovery plan programme for the lost three days of teaching, though he was concerned that this was not the first time teachers were being disruptive and refusing to teach at ComTech.

The school governing body would not comment, saying the department had released a statement on the issue. 

TimesLIVE