Unions have vowed to protect teachers’ jobs and essential school services amid a R28 billion budget shortfall in the country’s national education department.
Last week Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube revealed the challenges that would be faced by provincial education departments, sparking fears of teacher lay-offs and cuts to crucial school programmes.
The leadership of the South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) has pledged to do everything in its power to protect teachers’ jobs.
Speaking at the union’s 10th Congress recently, SADTU president Magope Maphila called for increased public investment in education and warned of difficult times ahead.
Maphila stressed that the crisis could not be allowed to unravel the gains made in the country’s education system.
“We are in for a challenging journey ahead,” Maphila said, alluding to the tough decisions that may soon have to be made.
He reiterated that SADTU would fiercely oppose any action that could result in the retrenchments of teachers, adding that such a move would only serve to worsen the quality of education in the country.
“We must minimise the impact of these budget constraints, and we need the public and all sectors of the economy to defend the gains made in education,” he added.
Basil Manuel, NAPTOSA’s Executive Director, said in a radio interview that the budget constraints had been building for years.
According to Manuel, government spending priorities, such as bailouts for state-owned enterprises (SOEs) like Eskom, have been eating into the budgets of critical social services like education, health and policing.
“This crisis has been a long time coming,” Manuel said. “We know that we suffered cuts a few years ago, and it was about the SOEs and Eskom. The economy is not performing well, but we made one plea last year – let's not touch the social departments.”
He added that protecting school feeding schemes was as important as defending teachers’ jobs.
He said in a country where poverty is rampant, many children rely on school meals as their main source of nutrition.
“When you impact education, police and health, you impact a much wider group,” he noted.
Cutting feeding schemes would affect the most vulnerable pupils, many of whom already struggle to access regular, nutritious meals at home, he said.
“We can’t blindly support such a suggestion, even if it would assist in keeping teachers employed.”
However, he added that reducing the number of teachers was not a sustainable solution.
“If you reduce teachers further, classrooms will reach bursting capacity. It’s not sustainable.”
NATU president Sibusiso Malinga also echoed the same sentiments, saying that children being born now will be learners who will need teachers in five years’ time.
"There is no union that will ever support job losses. We, 30 years into democracy, believe that we should have created more jobs for teachers and other workers of the education sector.
"That is because the birth rate in South Africa keeps rising," said Malinga.
He said the education sector will see more overcrowded classrooms if teachers lose jobs.
“It is unfortunate that as unions we cannot create jobs. However, we have met as NATU and other organisations with the minister of basic education to discuss this issue.”
“It was shocking to find that this is not an issue affecting the Department of Basic Education only, but rather all departments. So this is a government issue, and it must see what to do because we have hope, now that there is the GNU. They must come together and find ways to solve the problem,” said Malinga.
The Mercury