Community members and teachers in Clarkes Estate, Elsies River, in the Western Cape picketed outside a school on Friday, saying they’re “very upset” about the provincial education department’s plan to cut 2,400 teaching posts due to budget constraints.
“There is a lot of ill-discipline as there are a lot of school dropouts in our less affluent schools,” community leader Steve Ross said.
“After the teacher cuts, those who remain will see a bigger struggle with more children failing and more dropping out. This will then have a long-term impact on the children as they won’t become productive members of society.”
The protest comes a day after an urgent debate on the issue in the Western Cape legislature. Leader of the opposition ANC in the legislature, Khalid Sayed, said: “The impact will be especially devastating for under-resourced schools, where pupils need more attention, not less. Class sizes will balloon, individual support will diminish and the strain on educators will be unbearable.”
He said the province’s underfunding has been an ongoing issue, and not a crisis that arose overnight. “Only 37% of the provincial budget goes to education, compared with a national average of 41%. Worse, just 72% of the education budget is dedicated to compensating staff, below the national average of 76%.”
GOOD party secretary-general Brett Herron complained the province would rather spend money on crime prevention than saving education posts. “Education and health services have been defunded by R2.7bn since 2019 to pay for a safety plan that’s had no impact on quarterly crime statistics.
“The baseline of funding, the allocation to education from the provincial equitable share, was reduced to enable the province to spend R1.7bn on its policing plan from 2019 to 2023, with the 2024 budget committing an additional R1bn over the next three years.”
Herron questioned why education MEC David Maynier said in his 2024 budget speech the department had a shortfall of R537m at the end of last year but it would not result in a reduction in teaching posts.
“Just six months ago when the budget vote was approved, the MEC disclosed no plans to cut educator posts — his budget planned to increase posts in his department by 1,018, from 46,392 to 47,410 employees from 2023 to 2024.”
The Sunday Times reported national government had agreed to a 7.5% wage increase for teachers and other public servants for 2023/2024 but did not increase provincial budgets accordingly. Now, provinces are scrambling to adjust by making billions of rand in cuts.
Teaching posts, early childhood development programmes and scholar transport are among the items likely to be pruned across the various provinces.
TimesLIVE
Elsies River residents picket over looming teacher job cuts
Image: Steve Ross
Community members and teachers in Clarkes Estate, Elsies River, in the Western Cape picketed outside a school on Friday, saying they’re “very upset” about the provincial education department’s plan to cut 2,400 teaching posts due to budget constraints.
“There is a lot of ill-discipline as there are a lot of school dropouts in our less affluent schools,” community leader Steve Ross said.
“After the teacher cuts, those who remain will see a bigger struggle with more children failing and more dropping out. This will then have a long-term impact on the children as they won’t become productive members of society.”
The protest comes a day after an urgent debate on the issue in the Western Cape legislature. Leader of the opposition ANC in the legislature, Khalid Sayed, said: “The impact will be especially devastating for under-resourced schools, where pupils need more attention, not less. Class sizes will balloon, individual support will diminish and the strain on educators will be unbearable.”
He said the province’s underfunding has been an ongoing issue, and not a crisis that arose overnight. “Only 37% of the provincial budget goes to education, compared with a national average of 41%. Worse, just 72% of the education budget is dedicated to compensating staff, below the national average of 76%.”
GOOD party secretary-general Brett Herron complained the province would rather spend money on crime prevention than saving education posts. “Education and health services have been defunded by R2.7bn since 2019 to pay for a safety plan that’s had no impact on quarterly crime statistics.
“The baseline of funding, the allocation to education from the provincial equitable share, was reduced to enable the province to spend R1.7bn on its policing plan from 2019 to 2023, with the 2024 budget committing an additional R1bn over the next three years.”
Herron questioned why education MEC David Maynier said in his 2024 budget speech the department had a shortfall of R537m at the end of last year but it would not result in a reduction in teaching posts.
“Just six months ago when the budget vote was approved, the MEC disclosed no plans to cut educator posts — his budget planned to increase posts in his department by 1,018, from 46,392 to 47,410 employees from 2023 to 2024.”
The Sunday Times reported national government had agreed to a 7.5% wage increase for teachers and other public servants for 2023/2024 but did not increase provincial budgets accordingly. Now, provinces are scrambling to adjust by making billions of rand in cuts.
Teaching posts, early childhood development programmes and scholar transport are among the items likely to be pruned across the various provinces.
TimesLIVE
READ MORE:
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