Eastern Cape to re-appoint temp teachers
2012-04-17 21:05
Johannesburg - The Eastern Cape education department will re-appoint 1 836 temporary teachers by 30 April 2012, an official said on Tuesday.
"This cohort of 1 836 temporary educators consists of 1 222 temporary educators whose services were terminated in December 2011, and 614 new temporary educators to be appointed in newly created posts in terms of the 2012 post provisioning," superintendent general Modidima Mannya said in a statement.
The termination of the teachers' employment resulted in an SA Democratic Teachers' Union (Sadtu) go-slow in the province at the start of the 2012 teaching year. Subsequent negotiations meant the number of temporary teachers already appointed and paid by 26 March 2012 stood at 1 238, the department said.
Delays with filling the remainder of the posts were mainly due to outstanding documentation, the department said.
Their contracts would run to the end of September 2012.
In addition, 1 968 temporary teachers will fill vacant "substantive" posts for school principal, deputy school principal and heads of department.
These posts consisted of 1 318 vacant and substantive posts, plus 300 growth posts and 350 special transformation posts. Officials would make these appointments from April 17.
The appointments followed a decision on April 4 this year, where the department was instructed to attend to the urgent deployment of teachers to various schools.
Mannya said on September 27 last year that the executive council approved the number of posts for 2012. This entitled schools to fill any vacancies arising from their 2012 post establishments.
Mannya said there were 7 947 extra teachers at schools, who should have moved to schools where there were vacancies. If they had done so already, the number of vacancies would have been reduced.
In a separate statement, the Democratic Alliance in the province complained that some Grade R teachers in the Port Elizabeth area had not been paid since August.
DA MP Annette Lovemore said her party would press the province to release the number of people affected as soon as possible.
"The payment failures appear to be the result of administrative bungles following an investigation into 'ghost' Grade R teachers that Early Childhood Development practitioners concluded last year," said Lovemore.
The responsibility for payment had now been transferred to the provincial treasury and the teachers were waiting to be paid, Lovemore said.
Earlier this year, Western Cape Premier Helen Zille came under fire for saying many of the children in Western Cape schools were "refugees" from the Eastern Cape's education system.
- SAPA
