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GroundUp reports that more than 2,400 educator posts will be cut in the Western Cape from 1 January 2025. This is according to a circular issued by the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) on Tuesday on posts for 2025.
According to the WCED’s head of education, Brent Walters, the department only received 64% of the cost of the public sector wage agreement, with the remaining 36% to be funded by the province. He noted that in an effort to cut spending, the WCED had frozen the recruitment of non-educator staff at head office and across districts, with a current vacancy rate of 21%, and had also cut spending across its directorates. But despite budget cuts of R2.5 billion, the WCED still faced a R3.8 billion budget shortfall over the next three years. Walters said. “Considering the growing budget shortfall and fiscal uncertainty, we have no alternative but to announce the reduction of the educator post allocation by 2,407 posts, effective 1 January 2025 – the start of the 2025 school year.” According to National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of SA (Naptosa), there are currently 37,135 teachers in the Western Cape and 34,728 posts are now proposed for 2025. Schools will receive their 2025 staff allocations on Friday. Walters added that the process “will inevitably result in the non-renewal of contracts” and some educators being classified as “excess”. Naptosa’s Riedwaan Ahmed said the union opposed the cuts. “The contract posts are going to go first … The WCED says they are pro-poor and we’ve asked them not to touch the foundation phase. But we’ll see on Friday,” said Ahmed.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Marecia Damons at GroundUp
- Read too, Sadtu, SACP reject plan to cut more than 2,000 teachers in Western Cape, at Cape Times
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page