The Democratic Alliance (DA) has demanded that the Eastern Cape Department of Education (ECDoE) provide the Education Portfolio Committee with a detailed report on vacancies. The report must include a breakdown of all vacant posts and an action plan on when these vacancies will be filled.

The filling of 100 teaching vacancies with interns and advertising 379 office-based vacancies is a drop in the ocean compared to the critical staff shortages the Department is experiencing.

Provisional data provided to the Education Portfolio Committee has revealed that 1 794 teaching posts are currently vacant. These vacancies include posts for 380 principals, 39 deputy principals, 272 heads of departments, and 692 teachers, as well as top sliced posts.

These vacancies do not include the 788 positions cut from the year’s organogram. Due to financial constraints, the Department has decreased the number of educators employed in schools in the province, from 53 605 posts in 2022/23 to 52 817 in 2023/24.

While these posts remain vacant, learners are being robbed of their constitutional right to receive an education.

Not only are learners drastically affected, but vacant posts also put extra pressure on schools and educators. The teachers on site are often forced to take on unmanageable workloads and teach subjects they are not qualified in.

Parents should not have to close schools, to the detriment of the learners’ education, to get the ANC-led government to wake up to the realities that schools in this province are facing.

The DA will continue to fight for all our schools to be fully staffed with qualified educators that will add value to our children’s lives and empower them with the skills needed to seize the opportunities that the future brings.