Lentswe, Klerksdorp - Where are the teachers? And where has the money gone?! It is in the middle of the school year and there are still more than 29 000 vacant teaching posts in public schools in South Africa. These posts should have been filled at the start of the school year in January, according to Fedsas.
“A national disaster is unfolding before our eyes. These posts were budgeted for and the money was paid to provincial education departments a long time ago,” says Dr Jaco Deacon, CEO of Fedsas (Federation of Governing Bodies of South African Schools).
The organisation also pointed out last month that only three of the nine provinces had made the legally mandated transfer payments to schools before the deadline of May 15.
“Provincial education departments have therefore received two enormous sums of money – millions of rand for vacant posts and millions more for transfer payments. This money may not be used for any other purpose, but in most cases no appointments have been made and the transfer payments have not been made either. Whatever provincial education departments do with the money is unlawful. In essence, these officials are stealing from children!”
Deacon says 15% of public schools do not have permanent principals.
“The Western Cape is doing the worst. More than a quarter of schools in the province have acting principals. In addition, more than 40% of deputy principal posts in the Western Cape are also vacant. One can assume with reasonable certainty that there are schools in the Western Cape without any permanent leadership.”
In the North West, there are 2 487 vacant posts and 1 436 vacant posts for principals and deputy principals.
“The Western Cape is doing the worst. More than a quarter of schools in the province have acting principals. In addition, more than 40% of deputy principal posts in the Western Cape are also vacant. One can assume with reasonable certainty that there are schools in the Western Cape without any permanent leadership.” In the North West, there are 2 487 vacant posts and 1 436 vacant posts for principals and deputy principals. In both the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, there are more than 5 000 vacant posts, and in Gauteng more than 4 000. In eight of the nine provinces, more than 5% of the available posts are vacant. In the Eastern Cape, Northern Cape and Western Cape, it is more than 10%. In the Northern Cape, more than 16% of the available posts have not yet been filled. “The treasury has taken over all payment functions in this province. The education department is busy making arrears, but is now using this year’s money for last year’s payments.” The exception is the Free State, where only 217 posts are vacant. The Free State education department also made the transfer payments to schools before the deadline. Deacon says that apart from the fact that KwaZulu-Natal has not yet made any transfer payments and has thousands of vacant teaching posts, the provincial education department has also failed to pay some service providers of the school feeding programme for some time, which means that thousands of learners do not receive a single meal.
“To put it as clearly as possible: In KwaZulu-Natal, there are thousands of hungry learners in classrooms without teachers in schools that do not have the money to pay for water and electricity. This is a gross violation of children’s constitutional rights.”
FEDSAS once again urgently appeals to the Minister of Basic Education, Siviwe Gwarube, to intervene.
“There is currently no undertaking by any provincial education department, except the Western Cape, to advertise vacant posts at post level 1. FEDSAS requests Minister Gwarube to take immediate action so that all posts are advertised in a transparent manner to prevent the selling of posts.”
“Provincial education departments have been acting irresponsibly and often unlawfully for years but are not held accountable in any way. It seems as if the tail is wagging the dog.”
