By: Natasha Archary
There are currently over 31 000 staffing vacancies in South African schools which remain unfilled.
This was confirmed by Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga in a written reply to the Democratic Alliance (DA) in Parliament.
While Motshekga said filling the vacancies is an ongoing process, the DA has slammed the African National Congress (ANC) for disregarding government schools.
The opposition’s Basic Education spokesperson, Baxolile Nodada said the ANC is too focused on pushing the BELA Bill, instead of dealing with the vacancy crisis and overcrowding of classrooms.
“While the ANC-led government remains hellbent on the BELA Bill, the DA can reveal that 31 462 vacancies remain unfilled across our public schools.
This starkly shows the ANC’s disregard for basic education, and it is sadly unsurprising that our real matric pass rate sits at 55.3%.
Unfilled vacancies see classroom overcrowding, which explains why some schools have been reported with up to 70 pupils sharing one teacher.
Unfilled vacancies, however, are just the tip of the iceberg, as public schools are significantly short of infrastructure.
Pupils are forced to sit in unsafe classrooms, use pit toilets, as well as share furniture, textbooks, and stationery.
These lead to terrible educational outcomes for children, as 81% of Grade 4 learners cannot read for meaning.”
According to the DA the unfilled vacancies are concentrated in the more rural parts of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) and the Eastern Cape in particular.
There are 7 044 staffing vacancies unfilled in KZN and 6 111 in the Eastern Cape.
The DA says provinces are struggling to fill these vacancies due to their budgets being slashed.
R900 million was reportedly cut from the Western Cape’s budget, which sparked the province’s highest rate of vacancies.
Also read: DA to file complaint with Public Protector against Cyril Ramaphosa
