Teacher shortage heads for court
2013-03-06 18:50
Pretoria - The Centre for Child Law (CCL) is taking Basic
Education Minister Angie Motshekga to court over the shortage of teachers in
the Eastern Cape.
The urgent application by the child rights group will be
heard in the Eastern Cape High Court in Bhisho on Thursday.
"This application arises out of the failure of the
minister and the department of basic education to implement a court order of 3 August,
which directed the appointment of educators to vacant posts and to pay
educators occupying those posts," CCL director Ann Skelton said.
Schools and their governing bodies have joined the CCL
application.
The CCL is being represented by the Legal Resources
Centre (LRC).
Skelton said that in view of the failure, the applicants
sought an order directing the department to appoint 140 teachers in 17 Eastern
Cape schools.
"We call on Minister Motshekga to take urgent steps
in terms of her powers to ensure that the crisis in the Eastern Cape is
reversed and that teachers are appointed to vacant posts.
"Schools are being closed, children are not being
taught, and further legal action was required in order to get teachers
appointed," she said.
Sarah Sephton, regional director of the LRC in
Grahamstown, said the situation was already "desperate" when the
initial order was made by the court on 3 August last year.
On Tuesday, the SA Democratic Teachers' Union (Sadtu)
called for Motshekga to resign, saying it had lost confidence in her.
"We... make a passionate call to the minister to do
the honourable thing and take the road less travelled by submitting her
resignation," Sadtu said in a statement.
The union accused Motshekga of withdrawing an agreement
protecting collective bargaining.
- SAPA
