Bureaucracy inefficient
Eastern Cape education in crisis
AS reported in The Herald earlier this month (“Textbook debacle”, March 6), education in the Eastern Cape is definitely in a critical situation.
I wonder if Joe Public realises what is actually happening?
Do they realise how inefficient the Eastern Cape education department is compared with other provinces such as the Western Cape and Gauteng in particular? Let me mention a few things: All schools have had to submit their pupil numbers so that they can get their post provision numbers, that is the number of teachers allocated by and paid for by the education department.
At every school where there are Grade R (reception year or the old pre-primary) pupils, they have not been included in the pupil numbers.
These pupil numbers have been ignored by the department.
This results in many schools suddenly losing pupils, according to the department.
The responsibility then falls on the school governing body (SGB) to foot the salary bill for the Grade R teachers. Just like that – wham! – the department removed the posts.
So schools that have actually grown have been told that they have fewer pupils, so therefore have to have fewer teaching posts.
The salary bill now becomes the responsibility of the SGB with no prior warning. The result is higher school fees. How long does it actually take for the department to capture a teacher’s data so that he or she can be paid on time?
With computers available, this process should be virtually overnight.
A substitute teacher who taught in August, September and October last year has still not been paid.
I wonder if those working at the Bhisho offices receive their salaries every month or do they also wait months to be paid?
Teachers’ as well as leadership positions have still not been filled although these were advertised in the middle of last year.
Most interviews were conducted by September, lists were submitted to the department and, to date, very few of those positions have been filled. Why? What is the delay? A teacher I know resigned in November to leave at the end of term one this year.
Fortunately, she decided to follow up on this herself.
Her documents had not yet been processed at the beginning of the year plus she was told that she may not resign! For what reason, may I ask? A school at which a friend teaches was told it had to lose a teaching post.
Luckily one of the staff members volunteered to move to a school which had a vacancy.
She waited until she received the documentation before making the move to the new school.
Her previous school was told a few days ago that it needed to identify a staff member who would leave the school!
She is already teaching at the other school.
What does all the documentation that was completed mean to the department?
Does Bhisho actually know what’s happening in Port Elizabeth, or vice versa?
Is it not aware that she has already moved as she received the documentation from it?
The issuing of stationery and textbooks is deplorable. At the end of last year, many former Model C schools received boxes and boxes of stationery for all their pupils.
It’s very concerning as many of these schools’ parents can afford to buy stationery for their children.
Why wasn’t this stationery rather sent to indigent schools?
Some schools in the northern areas are still waiting for the books to be delivered! Term one is virtually over. Coupled with that, many of these northern areas schools are in dire need of the textbooks as the parent community is not always able to finance stationery for their children.
There was great pomp and ceremony at the beginning of the year when the premier of the Eastern Cape visited many schools in the Port Elizabeth area together with department members. It was more of a political tour than to ascertain whether or not the schools were ready.
Were schools who haven’t been allocated teachers visited?
Did the delegation see the 54 pupils sitting in one class?
Did they witness the classes without teachers? I think not!
I am really very concerned as the Eastern Cape is always at the bottom of the matric results. No wonder, with such inefficiency in our education department.
Concerned teacher, Port Elizabeth