The South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) and the SACP have rejected the Western Cape Education Department’s (WCED) proposed cut of more than 2 000 teacher posts for next year.
However, the department said its hands remained tied as budget cuts at national level were severely hampering their efforts provincially.
According to Sadtu provincial secretary Sibongile Kwazi, they learnt about the proposed cuts during a consultation with the department.
“Sadtu rejected the proposal and came up with a proposal to augment the finances for maintaining the current post basket,” Kwazi said.
Measures proposed by the union included the termination of the Back on Track programme, which seeks to address learning losses due to the Covid-19 period.
“The other area is the annual systemic evaluations.
“The proposals fell on deaf ears. The implications of the decrease in the basket of posts has dire consequences for contract educators.
This will also mean that poor no-fee paying schools will be burdened with an increase in the already overcrowded classes. This will also have an impact on the well-being of teachers.”
Among its concerns, the SACP cited the province’s academic performance record in recent years, which saw a drop in the National Senior Certificate rankings as the matric pass rate regressed from third to fifth place out of the nine provinces over a 3-year period.
“The SACP is outraged by the decision of the WCED to cut teacher posts for the 2025 year by a massive 2 407. This move will further compromise educational performance and outcomes by compounding the skewed resource allocation between schools in affluent areas and those in townships and rural communities. The Western Cape wants to use austerity measures as a pretext to further discriminate against schools in working class communities. It is these communities that will bear the brunt of the reduction in teacher posts.
“The DA-led government refused to reprioritise budgets for high priority items, such as teaching and learning, to achieve better educational outcomes,” the SACP said.
The provincial department blamed the national government for cutting its budget.
“We are fighting for our teachers. But we are being short-changed by the national government, receiving only 64% of the cost of the nationally negotiated wage agreement, which has left us with a massive budget shortfall. Despite already implementing a drastic R2.5 billion budget cut, including on administration, curriculum and infrastructure, we still face a R3.8bn budget shortfall over the next three years.
“We have engaged with educator unions regarding proposals to address the shortfall and we will communicate the decision to our schools. We should never have been put in this position, and we are going to do everything we can,” WCED spokesperson Bronagh Hammond said.
Cape Times