Hardly any lessons for Grade III pupils
through his daughter’s exercise book and discovered that the pages were blank. He said this was a clear sign that they had not learnt.
Jomo said during the recent meeting, the parents were advised that the school was short of two teachers. He said under normal circumstances, the school is supposed to have nine teachers to cater for the school.
Also, Jomo said the parents were advised during the meeting that the Grade III pupils were learning the core subjects. He said this was because the school was short of two teachers. However, Jomo said the parents doubted if the children were learning at all because they were struggling to do their homework.
activities
The Head teacher, Thabo Magagula, was reached for comment but he said he was not the relevant authority to speak on the activities of the school. He also urged parents to follow the right channel when they had grievances such as contacting the Regional Education Officer (REO), particularly when they were not content with the responses granted by the school.
An attempt to reach the Chairperson, Bricks Motsa, was made but his cellphone rang unanswered.
Meanwhile, the grantee of Methodist schools Reverend Goodwill Masuku said the challenge of shortage of teachers was not unique to Enhlanhleni Primary School. He said the shortage of teachers was common countrywide, probably because of government policy. Masuku said the situation was due to government not employing teachers.
There was also a concern raised by the parents that the school did not inform the Ministry of Education and Training in time that a teacher’s contract was about to end. However, Masuku said the government policy was such that a head teacher could only request a teacher when there was a vacancy.