It’s been a year since 114 schools in the rural areas of Transkei were damaged by storms but only 52 have been repaired so far. It is inconceivable that learners and educators in the other 62 wrecked schools are forced to brave the elements of nature. Tornados and heavy storms are an annual phenomenon from [...]

SOME 15 000 non-striking Eastern Cape teachers are finally going to be reimbursed, almost a year after their salaries were docked as part of a “blanket” punishment by the Education Department. These teachers, who did not take part in the crippling national teacher strike in August and September last year, are still owed more than [...]

Schools that refuse to adhere to directives about post provisioning for 2012 are on a collision path with the Eastern Cape Department of Education. In the Port Elizabeth District there are 324 additional educators in 89 schools. The DA was reliably informed that only 17 out of the 89 schools have complied with Collective Agreement [...]

THE Eastern Cape education department will have to write off nearly R119-million as bad debt because it can’t provide adequate documentation. This was revealed when department officials responded to questions by members of the provincial education portfolio committee stemming from the past financial year’s annual report.

“It’s a smokescreen to hide corrupt activities so they can’t be detected. They would rather get a disclaimer than be exposed.” — Edmund van Vuuren. VITAL documentation detailing payments and transactions worth possibly billions of rands made by the Eastern Cape Department of Education have allegedly been dumped in eight shipping containers outside the department’s [...]

“The unavailable documentation is tantamount to fraud” — Edmund van Vuuren. THE embattled Eastern Cape department of education has failed to submit crucial documents to the auditor-general to back up payments worth billions made during the last financial year. This was revealed yesterday when chief financial officer Philisa Mdikane came before the portfolio committee on [...]

TEACHERS in the Eastern Cape are frantically making photocopies of textbooks in a last-ditch attempt to give their pupils at least some chance of passing the exams that are currently under way. In addition, teachers are having to make their own copies of exam papers as the provincial Education Department has not allocated enough for [...]

THERE are mounting fears that a strike by the militant South African Teachers Union (Sadtu) next week could throw this year’s matric exams into complete disarray in the Eastern Cape. The shock announcement by the teachers’ union yesterday sparked outrage among educators, education specialists and opposition political parties in the province who say the strike [...]

SOME 15 000 Eastern Cape teachers who did not take part in last year’s national teacher strike are owed more than R50-million by the beleaguered Education Department, despite promises to reimburse them monies docked from their salaries as part of a “blanket” punishment. More than a year after the strike – which crippled education in [...]

DA provincial education spokesperson Edmund van Vuuren said because the average age of teachers was 46, this would present “an enormous problem” in 10 years’ time. AN astonishing new report has revealed South Africa produces only one third of the 2 000 new teachers the country needs every year and that the profession is increasingly [...]