The Western Cape Education Department’s (WCED) announcement that more than 2,400 teaching jobs would be cut has left everyone from parents to teacher unions and activists up in arms.
The department said the cuts would be effective from January 1, 2025.
It said that it had been fighting to save teaching posts after receiving only 64% of the cost of the nationally negotiated wage agreement from the government, leaving the province to fund the remaining 36%.
This resulted in a massive budget shortfall of R3.8 billion, which will weigh on the department’s shoulders for the next three years.
This shortfall stands despite the department already implementing a drastic R2.5bn budget cut in which they had frozen posts of non-educator staff at head office and in districts, leaving the current educator vacancy rate at only 21%.
Western Cape’ head of education Brent Walters said the costs related to the employment of educators outweighed what was currently available in the budget.
“We can now either run into the red financially or we can reluctantly reduce the number of educators in our system to afford our current wage bill.”
In the circular addressed to school principals, educators and school-based staff at public schools, Walters informs the bodies that they will receive their 2025 basket of post allocations on Friday.
Tania Colyn, acting spokesperson to Education MEC David Maynier, says the department has engaged with educator unions regarding proposals to address the shortfall and will communicate the decision to schools.
“We should never have been put in this position,” she said.
Provincial Head for the Educators and Allied Workers Union of South Africa (EUSA) André de Bruyn agreed and said cutting down is only steering previously disadvantaged schools closer to gutter education daily.
“Provincial governments should never be put into a position where it is either-or.
“Schools are already overcrowded, teachers are already overwhelmed, especially administratively. The cut will be totally detrimental to quality education.
“The problem with this is that the well-being of the teachers is not considered. I can almost say never considered when making decisions like this.”
“The affluent schools will not bare the brunt of this decision, but rather poor communities and the schools who serve it.”
De Bruyn says it’s also important that unions be consulted continuously, to avoid another uproar like “back in the days where disruptions were the order of the day”.
A teacher who recently started teaching in the foundation phase said the announcement sent them into a state of panic.
“Our classrooms are already so full, some with more than 40 learners in a class, what will we sit with now? Also, what will this mean for the learners? It’s not a fair decision.”
Education Activist Hendrick Makaneta, said austerity measures are a big cause for concern.
“They negatively affect every facet of life.
“Government must find a way to ensure that in the midst of austerity measures, jobs are saved.”
Makaneta stood with the overall view that cutting down teachers’ posts is not the way.
“It cannot be correct to cut down teacher posts.
“There is a high demand for more schools due to the growing population.
“Western Cape seems to be a leading province when it comes to cutting teacher posts and that is a cause for concern,” he said.
Education activist and founder and co-ordinator of Parents for Equal Education SA (Peesa) Vanessa le Roux, believes the cuts will mean a total implosion of education in the province.
“Our province is already suffering with little to no resources, no teaching can happen in this abnormality, the department should be taken to court, this is criminal.
“How parents can be silent and do nothing about it, is what baffles me!
“We are also going to have people who are going to lose their livelihoods and are qualified, well-educated teachers taking their skills to other countries, it’s an atrocity!”
ANC spokesperson on Education Muhammad Khalid Sayed called the cuts outrageous.
“It demands condemnation for its severe implications. This reckless move threatens to further destabilise education in the province, particularly impacting schools in previously disadvantaged communities.
“It is perplexing that, while other provinces are also affected by the public wage agreement, only the Western Cape is implementing such drastic and reckless measures.”