Union calls for police clearance of school assistants

THE Department of Basic Education’s R7 billion project for unemployed youth to work as education assistants and general school assistants from December 1 has been criticised by the Educators Union of SA ( Eusa).

It has called for the project to be put on hold until selected candidates could produce police clearance certificates on their criminal background.

The project was announced earlier this month as part of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s presidential employment stimulus programme to deploy 300 000 youth to work in schools.

Eusa said while it welcomed the initiative, it was concerned that the process was rushed and those recruited would start working without police clearance.

According to the project framework, candidates would have one month after they started working to produce the certificate.

Eusa president Scelo Bhengu said it was determined to stop the department from deploying anyone to schools before their criminal background had been cleared.

“We have been calling for the recruitment of assistant teachers, but we cannot support it when it is done in this reckless manner. This is why schools are easy targets for criminals where teachers and pupils are killed every day.”

Bhengu said they did not understand why the process was rushed because schools were about to close.

“The department is prepared to pay people who will be doing nothing for December and January, but fail to pay teachers salary increments.”

Basic Education spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said the risk was ” actually much less than imagined”.

“There will not be pupils at schools in December and schools will reopen on January 25,” he said.

He said the project was not rushed, but was being conducted efficiently.

“People are used to delays, but this time it is happening at a speed not anticipated by those expecting the department to fail,” said Mhlanga.

National Professional Teachers Organisation of SA provincial spokesperson Thirona Moodley said the time frames were rushed, but the bigger picture was that the project would provide an income for a large number of unemployed teachers and youth.

“We believe that there are mechanisms to check if the candidate is fit to work with children, including the police clearance, and if found to have lied, the department has a right to remove them.”

The SA Democratic Teachers Union provincial secretary, Nomarashiya Caluza, said it supported the economic support to the unemployed.

She questioned why the issue was raised now, when screeners and cleaners appointed for the management of Covid- 19 at schools were never checked for criminal records.

DA spokesperson on education Dr Imran Keeka said while there was no objection to job creation, the process should be halted until schools reopened, allowing sufficient time for police clearance.