The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) revealed that it is facing a R3.8 billion budget shortfall over the next three years, which would see 2 400 teaching posts being affected. This caused concern amongst teachers and stakeholders that retrenchments would be taking place.
Now, teachers unions have threatened to go on strike with the WCED saying, "striking will not change the fact that we are being short-changed by the national government".
According to the department, the national government only provided 64% of the cost of the wage agreement negotiated nationally with unions, leaving the province to fund the remaining 36%.
Even if we cut all the programmes suggested by the teachers’ unions, we would not come anywhere close to dealing with the massive R3.8 billion budget shortfall.
The Department clarified that it will reduce the number of educator posts available for the 2025 school year but that no teachers would be fired or retrenched. Some contract teachers may not have their contracts renewed upon expiry on 31 December 2024, while permanent teachers may be asked to relocate to schools with vacancies.
"We are not firing teachers, and we are not retrenching teachers. We understand that this will result in difficult choices for our schools. We have been engaging with teachers’ unions in this regard over the past month, to ensure that they understand the reason behind this decision."
This budget shortfall could lead to teachers not being paid, if nothing is done. The Department has commenced with actions to cover this such as making budget cuts of R2.5 billion to non-personnel spending.
We have not taken the decision to reduce the number of teaching posts lightly, and we are doing everything we can to fight for our teachers.
"We hope that teachers’ unions will choose to fight alongside us, rather than against us," said the Department.
