W Cape to lose 2 407 teaching posts next year

The Western Cape Education Department says it has informed schools about the number of teachers who will be affected by the decision to reduce posts by next year. Last week, the department said 2 407 posts will be cut. The department says this is due to budget cuts by the National Government. It says it will be working with schools to determine which teachers will be affected.

The Western Cape Education Department says the teacher cuts in the province are not the same as firing or retrenching teachers. It says 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.

The Department says the decision to slash posts was not taken lightly.

“We’re in this position for one reason and one reason only and that is that national government did not fully fund the nationally negotiated wage agreement in 2023; and despite implementing drastic budget cuts in the amount of R2.5 billion, we still have a R3. 8 billion deficit over the next three years. As a result of that we have had no choice but to reduce the basket of posts by 2 407 here in the Western Cape,” says David Maynier, Western Cape Education MEC.

The South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) has criticised the department’s decision to cut the positions. It says the department should have cut its back-on-track programme instead. This programme is being used to help learners catch up on academic time that was lost during COVID.

SADTU says the money that has been allocated to this programme can be used to secure the teachers’ jobs.

“The people who will be impacted by this are your recently qualified teachers, most of them who qualified in the past three years, and we know that in South Africa we have a challenge with youth unemployment so those people were the hopes for their families and suddenly they will be cut. This also has implications for their families because we know in South Africa each and every worker carries the burden of five other people in the family so it will have a great impact on their families as well,” says Sbongile Kwazi, Provincial Secretary: SADTU Western Cape.

The teacher cuts will also result in additional pressure in classrooms where many, especially in poorer areas are struggling with overcrowding.

“This means few teachers for more learners and population growth is already an issue and each year schools receive a lot of learners, and this will have a long-lasting effect which is a negative one on the learners and their education because overcrowding is already an issue and this means that it will be escalated because of this,” says Makanatsa Ziyambi from Equal Education.