Breidbach teacher protest

Hundreds of Breidbach Primary School pupils were left stranded on Tuesday when angry protesters disrupted learning over the recruitment of five teachers for the school.

The protest, which commenced on Friday, entered day three on Tuesday, with parents burning tyres and rubble outside the school gates from early in the morning.

Resident Stacey Gosling said there was a shortage of six teachers at the school.

However, provincial education spokesman Malibongwe Mtima said only five teachers were needed.

Gosling said: “Since last year there has been a shortage of six educators at the school, so the parents decided to shut the school down in protest over the shortage.

“The teachers who worked at the school last year moved to other schools while others retired. Since the start of the year, some pupils have not had a single class as there is no one to teach them, even though the first quarter is almost over.”

Gosling said the decision to protest was taken on Thursday. “Since we protested on Friday, three letters of appointment were sorted, and we are now fighting for the other three. We will continue with the protest even tomorrow [Wednesday].

“We don’t even know how they will assess the children for the first quarter as there were no teachers,” Gosling added.

Mtima said the matter had been sorted out.

“The teachers needed in that school are five. We appoint teachers based on the number of pupils, not feelings.

“Three appointments were sorted out on Friday already after we met with the parents.

“We are busy with the two outstanding appointments now,” Mtima said.