Parents of school learners in Port Elizabeth’s Northern Areas are expected to hold a picket protest on Tuesday to highlight the ongoing problem of teacher shortages.
Northern Areas Education Forum (NAEF) secretary, Richard Draai, said that all schools in the Northern Areas had been informed of the picket action set to take place across Standford Road from 8am.
Draai said that the picket protest was in support of the plight of the Astra Primary School in Bethelsdorp.
The school was closed last week by angry parents who shut the school gates, picketed and burnt tyres. Parents are demanding that 10 vacant posts be filled.
On Monday a mass meeting was held at the school and angry parents decided to keep the school closed.
“The problem is the post provisional norms of 2016, the process is completely flawed and wrong. It does not deal with problems of overcrowding and non payment of teachers,”
“People think everything is honky dory because they put up fences at schools, but everything is not fine, the numbers at schools went up and schools lost teachers. A budget should not determine how many teachers should be at school,” said Draai.
Draai said that out of all the schools Astra Primary was in one of the worst predicaments.
“It’s unbelievable, you know they had to take out a bond to pay the teachers? The school had to come up with R70 000 per month to pay the 10 teachers, ” explained Draai.
Recently, Astra Primary School had to let 10 teachers go because the school governing body no longer had the funds to pay them.
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