Mitchell’s Plain High teachers, pupils and governing body members picketed outside the school last week against the provincial education department’s plan to get rid of 2407 teacher posts for next year.
The school is part of the Western Cape Education Department’s Metro South district and has 11 teacher posts that will not be renewed at the end of the year.
This is on top of the seven teachers the school lost earlier this year.
A total of 444 positions will be cut across the Metro South district for 2025.
“Again, our learners will be marginalised, and it will affect the most vulnerable, poorest of the poor communities,” Gerald Alexander, the school’s governing body chairperson, said in a letter to parents last week.
Failing to renew the contracts of 11 teachers at the school would see a “regress to gutter education”, leading to greater ill-discipline among pupils, unmanageable class sizes and high absentee rates from teachers suffering from burnout, he said.
WCED spokesperson Bronagh Hammond said the school would still be “below the provincial teacher-to-learner ratio, even after the reduction in their teacher basket”.
The formula to divide the number of teaching posts between schools was prescribed by the national government and took into account class sizes, the workload of teachers, the size of the school, language, curriculum, poverty, and other factors, she said.
“The WCED is working closely with schools to determine which teachers will be affected. We are not firing teachers, and we are not retrenching teachers. The reduction in posts will mean that some contract teachers will not be reappointed after their contracts end on 31 December 2024, and some permanent teachers will be asked to move to another school where there is a suitable vacancy.”
Jamiela Rulser, the governing body chairperson of Montague Drive Primary in Portland, said the school would lose four teachers, placing further strain on teachers and pupils.
“We already have too many kids in our classes, and teachers can already not cope. How will we cope with fewer teachers and more kids in a class? Our teachers are already burnt out because one teacher must see to 40 kids. Many of our teachers get sick often because of all the stress, so you can imagine what impact 50 kids in a class will have,” Ms Rulser said.
Education MEC David Maynier said the department had engaged teacher unions over the past month to ensure that they understood the reason behind the recent decision.
“It is not a decision that has been taken lightly. We are in this position because we are being short-changed by the national government, receiving only 64% of the cost of the nationally negotiated wage agreement, leaving the province to fund the remaining 36%.
“Despite implementing a drastic R2.5 billion budget cut, including on administration, curriculum and infrastructure, we still face a R3.8 billion budget shortfall over the next three years,” he said.
“Teachers are our greatest asset, and reducing the number of teachers in our schools will negatively impact learning outcomes.
“I have raised the matter at the Council of Education Ministers for urgent action, because these budget shortfalls impact all the provinces. I am in contact with the national Minister of Basic Education, Siviwe Gwarube, who similarly understands the seriousness of the situation.”
On Saturday, community activists gathered in Salt River for a meeting called by the Western Cape Education Crisis Committee to discuss the budget cuts.
Abeedah Adams, a Mitchell’s Plain member of the committee, said they were concerned about the impact of the planned teacher cuts on poor, black working-class communities.
“We cannot simply sit by quietly and see this happening without any opposition,” she said to the Plainsman on Monday.
In an update on Monday, the committee said the budget cuts would have a destructive impact that would extend beyond teachers.
“If left unchallenged, it will wreak total havoc across our communities more broadly,” it said, adding that school pupils and university students would be among those worst affected.
Job cuts were one aspect of a broader crisis in the education sector. Classes were also too big, schools were underfunded and teachers were under-resourced, it said.
“Protection of jobs cannot come at the expense of reduced salaries, cost cutting on students, or any other progressive educational spending. As such it was proposed that the goal of the campaign should be for the WCED to halt all planned retrenchments and for all budget cuts across the basket of public goods and services to be suspended in their entirety,” the committee said.
