The chairperson of the Select Committee on Education, Sciences and Creative Industries, Makhi Feni has welcomed the assurance by Minister of Basic Education, Siviwe Gwarube that no teachers will be retrenched next year.
Teachers across the country have been on edge after budget cuts within the education sector saw provinces leaning to retrench teachers by January 2025.
Gwarube led a departmental delegation to Parliament to brief the committee on budget cuts and the impact on teacher employment.
“Monday marked 100 days of the Government of National Unity (GNU), an event that coincided with the release of five prominent political prisoners (Walter Sisulu, Elias Motsoaledi, Andrew Mlangeni, Raymond Mhlaba, and Ahmed Kathrada) all those years back. These are sacrifices that give us, as a nation, character, which we want reflected in the quality education system we have,” Gwarube said.
“The cutting of teacher posts had the committee worried and we cannot afford to be shedding educator jobs now. There will always be contradictions in living and experiencing the world, but we cannot risk the future of our children and the livelihoods of our educators.”
Feni welcomed the assurance that budget cuts will not lead to teacher retrenchment and said the stability in the sector and South Africa’s quality education will now be maintained.
Gwarube also stated that South Africa needs to invest in its education system and her department will do everything possible to shield frontline service workers from budget cuts.
She said budget cuts are a government-wide constraint affecting all departments, but the Department of Basic Education in consultation with the National Treasury had worked to find solutions to the problem.
While she further assured no retrenchments would happen in 2025, Gwarube said teacher numbers would remain as they are for the year despite her wanting to hire more.
“We are comforted by the Minister’s pronouncements, and that places the committee in a good position when it goes out to do oversight. We can see that efforts are being undertaken to ensure that we are not negatively affected. We appreciate that,” Feni said.
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