The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) says several measures are being taken to ensure enough teachers are employed at schools in the province.
In November 2023, the WCED issued a circular outlining its plans to deal with a budget deficit of more than R870 million in the 2024/25 financial year. This deficit is to cover the costs of the increases in the nationally negotiated public sector wage agreement.
The implementation of these cost-cutting measures means that the WCED will not employ substitute teachers for any reason except for maternity leave coverage. In addition, any Post Level (PL) 1 posts not filled via conversion to permanent positions by 31 March 2024 would be required to follow a formal recruitment process.
This meant that some contract teachers in the province were sent home and will now have to follow formal recruitment processes before they can return to the classroom.
Teachers Unions Slam WCED
The South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) warned that this decision by the WCED will spell disaster for poor schools.
Classrooms will be left without teachers where there are educators acting in vacant Deputy Principal and Departmental Head positions as WCED will not be employing substitute educators in their place, even though the substitute posts would be within the approved staff establishment of the school. The schools will have to wait until the recruitment and selection processes are complete before the posts are filled.
This decision not to employ teachers in a temporary capacity will be felt most by schools that cannot afford to hire teachers using their School Governing Body (SGB) budgets. The SGB budget is separate from government-funded positions.
The union indicated that the WCED allegedly advised schools to implement a Temporary Revised Education Programme (TREP), where learners will not attend school daily but on certain days of the week.
Sadtu said these measures are detrimental to education and exacerbate inequality by widening the gap between poor learners and those attending affluent schools.
The WCED said PL 1 posts will also not be provided for acting appointments against vacant substantive School Management Team posts, except for principal posts. They also froze the appointment of all office-based public service posts and the WCED head office as well as district offices and only critical posts will be activated upon approval.
Supporting Schools
WCED spokesperson Bronagh Hammond said the department is doing everything possible to assist schools despite the devastating impact of the budget cuts.
Despite the major budget cuts, we are doing everything we can to support our schools and will continue to fight to deliver quality education to the learners in the Western Cape.
The recruitment and selection processes are being accelerated to fill vacant posts with teachers who will be employed permanently. This is currently being done for 1,613 teachers following the publication of the most recent vacancy lists.
They indicated that they have permanently employed 3,100 teachers who were previously employed on contract and extended 2,282 contracts of teachers employed in vacant posts till the end of 2024.
The WCED also expedited the appointment of teachers where schools have already finalised the recruitment and selection processes and employed teachers on contract, in exceptional cases, while vacant posts are being filled,
We will also be employing about 800 teachers, who are currently working on contract, permanently by 01 May 2024.
2025 Admissions
The WCED remined parents that there is only one week to go before the Grade 1 and 8 online admissions window for the 2025 school year closes. The WCED is urging parents and guardians to sort out the required documentation needed to apply online.
The WCED school admissions deadline is 12 April with 67 000 Grade 1 and Grade 8 applications received online so far.
The department has so far received over 67 000 Grade 1 and Grade 8 applications online. We are, however, concerned that according to our data, there are still over 40 000 Grade 7’s that are still yet to apply for Grade 8 next year.
