A blame-game has ensued over the looming teacher post cuts in the Western Cape, with the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) saying the situation could have been avoided if the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) did not “drag its feet” in converting contract teacher posts to permanent positions.
Pressure has been mounting on the WCED to review its decision to cut more than 2 400 teaching jobs from January 1.
This means some contract teachers will not be reappointed after their contracts end on December 31, and some permanent teachers will be asked to move to another school where there is a suitable vacancy.
The Public Servants Association (PSA), representing thousands of educators employed by WCED, said the move would not only compromise the future of the education system but contribute to the country’s soaring unemployment figures. At the centre of this decision, the WCED blames the budget cuts imposed by the national government.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Sadtu said the 2 400 teacher posts being cut should have been converted to permanent positions over the past three years after the implementation of the Back on Track programme which was introduced for learning losses during the Covid-19 lockdown period.
The union has also threatened strike action after it lodged a dispute with the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) for insufficient consultation.
Sadtu provincial secretary Sibongile Kwazi said the dispute was for inadequate consultation done relating to the 2025 basket of educator posts which will take effect at the beginning of next year.
“The department of education has an obligation to consult all trade unions affiliated to the ELRC on the basket of posts for the following year...the first consultation with the minister of education was done on August 23. From the onset, all the unions rejected the proposed basket which proposed a cut of 2407 posts.
“The main reasons we rejected this is because as a union we believe there was insufficient consultation. When we are consulting, our expectation is that any proposal must be considered and all saving mechanisms proposed by the labour department have been overlooked by the WCED.
“They are in the media saying they are not retrenching teachers but what will they call it when people who have been in their employ for three years are going to lose their jobs? Jobs of contract educators are as good as jobs of permanent educators,” said Kwazi.
The union said the WCED had to re-allocate funding from the Back on Track programme.
“(We) propose the halting of the Back on Track programme for 2025 as it only benefits a fraction of the learners who experienced learning losses during the Covid-19 lockdown period.
We also proposed the suspension of the Annual Systemic Evaluation which costs millions of rands for 2025 as the department has sufficient data to inform interventions needed to improve on educational outcomes,” said Kwazi.
Probed on why the matter was not taken to internal political structures for intervention by the Department of Basic Education, Kwazi said: “The employer of teachers in the province is the head of department.
“That means the dispute could not be taken to the national Department of Basic Education as they are not the employers but the employer is within the province.”
WCED spokesperson Bronagh Hammond said: “The WCED notes the dispute lodged by Sadtu. The process will run its course in terms of the ELRC process. We are in our current position as a result of the decision by the national government to not fully fund the 2023 nationally negotiated public sector wage agreement.
“We still hope that Sadtu will join our fight for our teachers in the Western Cape by urging the National Treasury to fully fund the agreement.
We must also correct some of the claims made at a press conference on their dispute.
“Regarding the conversion of posts, the WCED widely encouraged the conversion of contract teacher appointments to permanent appointments. We in fact sped up this process, processing and confirming the conversion of 5 000 contract appointments into permanent appointments in the period January – August 2024. A further 443 contract appointments are currently being converted to permanent,” said Hammond.
Enquiries to the DBE were not answered by deadline on Tuesday.
ELRC general secretary, Dr Cindy Foca, confirmed they received the dispute lodged by Sadtu and that the matter will now be set down for conciliation, where the appointed Commissioner will try to resolve the matter between the parties.
“If not resolved, the matter will then be set down for arbitration, where the Commissioner will decide,” said Foca.
Cape Times