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An apparent teaching catastrophe has reared its head at a local primary school, fearing not only that quality education may be compromised but that it may be unable to deliver the curriculum.
While one of the Helderberg basin’s oldest schools attributes the dilemma squarely to the dreaded implications of the Western Cape Education Department’s (WCED) budget cuts, which “unexpectedly” cost the institution the loss of four teachers in substantial contract positions, the department says the situation is a result of the school failing to implement measures to mitigate the impact of stringent cost constraints timeously.
According to the acting principal of Somerset West Methodist Primary School, Trevor de Waal, the school’s “staff establishment” has been reduced from 24 to 20 teachers. “Four contract posts were declared void in line with circular letters 0034/2023 and 008/2024,” he said.
“[The situation] is worrying and has a negative impact on our curriculum provision to our learners. Certain subjects cannot be offered and there are classes without register educators. We are highly stressed and concerned about learners’ academic progress.”
De Waal said the biggest concern, given the devastating loss of much-needed teaching staff, is the possibility that learners will not be able to complete their term assessment, which in turn could put added pressure on the third-term workload.
On the flip side, De Waal said, teachers at the school are worried about possible subject overload in addition to a heavy-laid burden of an existing administrative load. Moreover, there is already a lot of absenteeism among staff due to work stress.
Equally concerned are parents who, out of fear that their children’s education may be hanging in the balance, flocked to the school, inundating management with enquiries.
In addition to a month-end (April) letter addressed to parents, informing them of the situation and assuring them the school was taking steps to address the matter, a meeting was held at the school hall on Monday evening (6 May) to raise awareness of the impact of the circulars with a modus operandi of “going forward” and directly addressing parents’ concerns.
A 42-year-old Macassar mom, who is worried about her Grade 3 son’s education since the eight-year-old with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder had apparently merely been supervised at school since last Tuesday, expressed still feeling anxious, but was more positive about the school’s interim plans to get all teaching hands on deck while a more permanent solution is sought.
“The principal conducted himself well during the meeting, despite an apparent target by community members who called him out for sugar-coating the situation,” said the parent.
“The goal now is to stand together to resolve the matter amicably for the benefit of our children.”
Community activist Christiaan Stewart was adamant the onus rested on the department to monitor schools, keeping tabs on vacancy lists and reacting accordingly. Not doing so may result in the assumption that the staff and the school governing body are not functioning effectively. “The department should have intervened earlier,” he said. “They have failed the community, parents and children.”
On enquiry, WCED spokesperson Bronagh Hammond explained that in 2023 the department was dealt a devastating blow when national government announced major budget cuts, which forced it to implement stringent cost-containment measures.
She said the department was currently facing an R870 million deficit in the 2024-’25 financial year, which needed to be absorbed to cover the cost of the increases in the nationally negotiated public-sector wage agreement.
“We issued a circular on 21 November 2023, indicating that to maintain the number of permanent teaching posts in the system and stability in our schools we needed to implement various cost-containment measures,” elaborated Hammond, adding that it was agreed to delay the implementation by one term, to ensure schools were ready to manage the process.
“We have consulted widely on the above with school governing body associations, principals’ associations, teachers’ unions and schools.
“Many schools took the necessary steps to ensure they had implemented the measures outlined in the circular by 31 March. Some schools did not implement the measures, for various reasons.
“The department is stepping in to support the schools that have not implemented the measures. Hundreds of temporary contracts have been approved to address these needs. Somerset West Methodist Primary School had not fully implemented the measures required to mitigate the impact of the circular before 31 March.”
Hammond noted that some of these measures would have included the conversion of contract posts to permanent and/or the extension of contracts to 31 December this year.
“Unfortunately, due to these options not being implemented, the school has been impacted. It has affected four posts. They were only recently made aware of this and have now applied for conversions,” she pointed out.
“The WCED has liaised with the school on the steps to be taken to mitigate the impact further, which has included an application to the WCED for the conversion of posts. This is now being processed and considered.”
De Waal confirmed that since the implementation of the circular there has been constant communication with the Metropole East Education District office regarding the issue of extending the contract positions and a decision on the former is awaited.
De Waal added one fear is an impending break in curriculum structure, and funds are needed urgently to temporarily hire qualified teachers to prevent this from occurring.
