SHERLISSA PETERS
THE KZN Education Department has denied its actions are in any way unlawful, unfair and unreasonable, or conducted in a malicious manner to the detriment of pupils and teachers at four public schools in the province.
This denial follows an application in the Pietermaritzburg High Court by the four schools last year against Education MEC Senzo Mchunu, the department, and its head, Nkosinathi Sishi.
Gert Maritz and Gelofte primary schools in Pietermaritzburg, and Dundee and Scott-burgh high schools, are seeking an order setting aside the department’s “educator post establishments” for 2012 – which indicate how many teachers each school has been allocated – pending the finalisation of an application to have the posts for KZN reviewed.
The schools allege that the Education Department only told them in December last year, a day before the school year ended, that they would have fewer teachers this year, leaving them insufficient time to fill the positions before schools reopened. The school governing bodies – members of the Federation of Governing Bodies of SA Schools – say that they should have been told of the reduction in posts on or before September 30, but were only told on December 8, after their 2012 budgets had been prepared.
This left the schools with insufficient time to arrange the employment of replacement teachers.
Gert Maritz governing body chairman Gideon van Wyk, representing the schools, said the MEC’s failure to meet the September 30 deadline meant the educator post establishments for 2012 had to be implemented so late in the year that it would lead to a breakdown in the system.
According to the department, Gert Maritz would lose six teachers, Gelofte and Dundee one each, and Scott-burgh two. Van Wyk said the schools had prepared and approved their respective budgets after September 30, on the presumption that the posts would remain the same.
The late release of the changes had huge financial implications for the schools, he said.
If the schools could not fill the vacant positions, class sizes would increase in the affected grades, affecting the quality of teaching.
In responding papers filed yesterday, the general manager for human resources in the Education Department, Nkosinathi Ngcobo, said it was unfortunate that the schools sought to introduce evidence of the loss of teachers and the employment of educators by the governing bodies without having first shown whether the “lost” educators were actually necessary, with regard to the enrolment at the various schools.
Ngcobo said that the allocation of educators for a particular academic year was based on the enrolment figures provided by the schools in the annual survey of the previous year.
According to the department, Gert Maritz’s enrolment figure dropped from 485 in 2010 to 310 last year, while Gelofte’s dropped from 702 in 2010 to 653 in 2011. Dundee’s enrolment dropped from 714 in 2010 to 704 last year while Scottburgh’s figure fell from 561 in 2010 to 535 in 2011.
The matter was adjourned to February 2 for the schools to respond.