Decision to reduce WC teaching posts not taken lightly, says MEC Maynier

CAPE TOWN - Western Cape Education MEC David Maynier said that the decision to reduce teaching posts in the province was not taken lightly.

He was responding to mounting calls from teacher unions and civil society organisations to save more than 2,400 teaching positions in the province.

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Some contract teachers will not be reappointed, and some permanent educators will be moved to other schools.

Maynier said the national government's decision to not fully fund the negotiated public sector wage agreement had resulted in provincial education departments having to make take hard decisions. 

He said that other provinces, just like the Western Cape, were faced with tough decisions of cutting crucial programmes, such school feeding and learner transport for vulnerable learners.

However, Western Cape Education Crisis Committee's Abeedah Adams said this issue was much bigger than that and had implications for many people.

"People who are part and supporting the campaign are university students who are doing education, who might be in their final year. What does the future hold for them? They're going to graduate with their education degree or their PGCE [Postgraduate Certificate in Education] at the end of this year and there's no job." 

The department said it continues to engage with National Treasury to find a solution to the crisis.