Northern areas schools threaten to shut

DOZENS of schools in Port Elizabeth's northern areas are threatening to close their doors indefinitely until they get more teachers.

Missionvale Primary was the first to shut its doors yesterday, with parents demanding that the provincial Education Department fill all vacant posts at the school.

The principals of all 55 primary and 15 high schools in the northern areas will meet on Tuesday to decide the way forward.

Missionvale Primary schoolgoverning body (SGB) chairman Julius Mandeka said the school was short of four teachers and the increased workload was putting added stress on the existing staff.

The school had a total of 1229 pupils and, because of the teacher shortage, the Grade 6 pupils had not had any maths lessons so far this year. There were also no teachers for the Grade 1 English and Afrikaans classes.

Astra Primary principal Desmond Lewis said although parents had shut down the school on Monday, it had reopened the next day after the department promised to appoint four of the six teachers paid by the SGB during this month. A fifth teacher's temporary contract would be extended to December.

Schools across the city were forced to cough up money for temporary teachers when the new school year started due to the critical shortages. However, many of them can no longer afford to do so and, unlike the wealthier former Model C schools, do not have the funds to take the matter to court. - Jerome Cornelius and Alvené du Plessis