Teaching posts basket unchanged

TEACHER unions in the Eastern Cape are unhappy with the number of posts declared by Education MEC Mandla Makupula yesterday, with the SA Democratic Teachers' Union saying the province needs at least 75000 teachers.

The unions accused the department of once again turning a deaf ear to the ongoing outcry over teachers' workloads and the shortage of teachers in certain subjects.

Declaring the posts for next year at the department's unofficial headquarters in Stirling, East London, Makupula toed the Treasury line and announced a posts basket of 55796, with 7080 for non-teaching staff such as cleaners, clerks and security guards.

This is the same number of posts as this year, which saw thousands of pupils across the province without teachers, with pupils and parents in Nelson Mandela Bay's northern areas shutting down schools and staging mass protests. - Zandile Mbabela