Some schools in KwaZulu-Natal’s rural areas faced an exodus of teachers to urban areas unless the provincial government reinstated the payment of allowances for teachers, the National Teachers’s Union (NATU) said on Wednesday.
Union spokesman Allen Thompson said allowances for teachers in rural areas was stopped at some schools in March. The province has six thousand schools, and five thousand of them were in rural areas, he said.
“Rural schools will be severely affected, we started seeing teacher migration from rural areas after the allowances were stopped. The department has presently advertised over 2000 teacher vacancies across the province, most of the teachers who have applied are those based in rural areas and willing to move,” said Thompson.
He said the union has written to Education MEC Mthandeni Dlungwane requesting an urgent meeting over allowances.
Paying teachers appropriate allowances attracted skilled educators. The department needed to focus on rural districts and pay teachers incentives in order to improve matric performance, said Thompson.
“Scores of qualified teachers migrate to urban areas and rural schools find it hard to attract relevant, experienced and highly qualified teachers because there is no incentive. Even in the few schools where the policy is implemented, not all the teachers receive the allowance. That is why we want the MEC to address this issue urgently. He shouldn’t be surprised when matric results decline again if he fails to do so.”
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