Teachers who can teach in Afrikaans should leave English- and Xhosa-medium schools and accept posts at Afrikaans-medium schools.
Teachers who can teach in Afrikaans should leave English- and Xhosa-medium schools and accept posts at Afrikaans-medium schools.
This is one of the solutions to a shortage of Afrikaans-speaking teachers proposed by Democratic Alliance shadow MEC for Education Edmund van Vuuren.
In a media release last week, van Vuuren said Education MEC Mandla Makupula had failed to tell the public that the department was short of Afrikaans-speaking teachers.
Van Vuuren alleges that Makupula also failed to mention that the number of Funza Lushaka bursary holders suitable to be placed at these schools had been exhausted.
The Funza Lushaka Bursary Programme is a multi-year programme that promotes teaching in public schools.
Among the solutions van Vuuren proposed was to motivate Afrikaans speaking teachers from English and Xhosa medium schools to avail themselves for absorption into the existing vacant posts at Afrikaans medium schools and simultaneously re-assign teachers to the posts that are left vacant through this absorption process. However, District Head of Education in Grahamstown, Amos Fetsha sung a different tune, saying the department has filled at least 17 posts in the Grahamstown, while placing a further 11 teachers through the project.
The project is taking place at a provincial level, where there is placement of additional educators as well said Fetsha.
In an interview with Grocott's Mail, Fetsha stressed that the Department of Education's responsibility is not to employ but to supply the province with the number of vacancies. "The allocation of posts in schools is [the]competence of the MEC.
We anticipate that by the end of September he will then be declaring the number of posts for the province," said Fetsha. According to Fetsha, the main reason for the education department taking this long to hire teachers is that the allocation of posts in the province should be driven by curricular needs and that the education department finds itself facing dire budgetary constraints.
He also said that foundation phase teachers are a scarcity as many of them have retired and some are reluctant in changing from one school to the other. However Fetsha could not answer as to how many schools around Makana are still without teachers but acknowledges the fact that there are still vacancies.
"We are still sitting with about 44 vacancies in schools," said Fetsha. They cut across in a number of schools within the district, he added. George Jacques Primary in Alicedale is one of many schools in the Eastern Cape that had to resort to protests in order for a teacher to be appointed at the school.
The school had been without a Grade 1 Afrikaans teacher for almost a year before one was appointed late last month. Fetsha said schools in need of Afrikaans teachers are rare.
"The problem is that there are many of these schools that need Afrikaans' educators and if we solve one issue at a time the other school will also complain," he said. Meanwhile, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga put all nine provinces on warning in a speech on Wednesday 3 September.
She told them to shape up and fill all vacant posts by the end of the year.
The minister announced that there are 3 202 vacancies, including 59 unfilled school principal posts, in the Eastern Cape alone. She said the Eastern Cape Department of Education has compiled a list of 1 117 critical posts earmarked for immediate filling at Level 1.
“I have sent a memorandum to all provinces, instructing them to fill all vacant posts by December 31.
So we will be able to report on progress after this date,” she said. In her address, Motshekga could not give assurances that the 3 202 vacant posts in the Eastern Cape would be filled by next year because the province has run out of funds. She said that her deputy, Enver Surty, was dealing with the matter.
“We had to go back to National Treasury to request it to re-prioritise funds to fill in these posts,” Motshekga said.
