800 senior school posts still vacant

This is a recipe for disaster; uncertainty leads to chaos

THE end of the school year is upon us and hundreds of KwaZuluNatal educators still do not know where they will be working next year.

According to a source, the successful applicants for as many as 800 senior posts – including heads of department, deputy principals and principals – at schools around the province have yet to be announced.

As a result, the applicants and the schools are facing serious challenges in planning for next year.

A total of 2 204 posts were advertised earlier this year. As per the management plan in Human Resources Management Circular 28 of 2016: Advertisement of School Based Promotion Posts, dated June 13, appointment letters were meant to be distributed on October 24 and promotees to assume duties on December 1.

But as of yesterday, said the source, only about 1 300 successful applicants had been announced.

Staff and students at Kingsway High School in eManzimtoti are among those still waiting to hear who their principal will be next year.

A staff member told The Mercury it was a major issue.

“We’ve also lost an HOD who has been promoted to a deputy principal post, so that also leaves a huge gap,” she said.

A well-placed contact within the education sector said the management plan was in itself problematic.

“The logistics leave much to be desired. Starting at a new school a week before the end of the academic year borders on impossible and certainly not in anybody’s best interest,” she said.

Of the posts which were still to be announced on, she said: “Our concern is that schools are not in the position to plan for next year and the first day of school in 2017 is not going to be a good one.”

She said some believed the successful applicants for these posts would only be announced in the new year.

“This is discrimination at its best as some schools will have everything in place and some won’t even know who to expect”.

Leanne Roos of the Suid-Afrikaanse Onderwysersunie said schools were in a predicament.

“Many of these posts are principal posts and all are management posts,” Roos said.

“Schools cannot effectively plan for next year if they do not know who the successful candidates are.”

Roos said it was also difficult for successful candidates transferring to new schools.

The KZN head of the National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa, Anthony Pierce, said the Education Labour Relations Council had released a schedule – which was incomplete – and made it available to the unions.

“We can, without a doubt, say that the department won’t keep to its targets in the management plan and there will be schools without personnel next year,” Pierce said.

“This is a recipe for disaster, uncertainty leads to chaos”.

But spokesman for the Department of Education, Muzi Mahlambi, has placed the blame on the inefficient school governing bodies (SGBs).

“The SGBs are supposed to compile shortlists, conduct interviews and make recommendations,” he said.

He was adamant that successful applicants for posts at schools where this had been done had been announced.

He said where successful applicants had not been announced, this was either because the SGBs had not finalised and submitted their recommendations or because the post was being disputed.

Mahlambi also dismissed claims that the number of successful applicants yet to be announced was “anywhere near 1 000”.

He did not, however, have accurate figures readily available.