School admin jobs advertised

Provincial department seeks to fill 1 023 posts

AFTER a 20-year moratorium on the appointment of nonteaching staff at schools, the Eastern Cape Department of Education has advertised 1 023 administrative assistant posts for schools in its 23 districts.

Provincial education spokesman Malibongwe Mtima said the department had decided it would advertise these posts to ensure that schools could focus on providing good-quality education.

Yesterday, school principals and the Northern Areas Education Forum (NAEF) welcomed the department’s decision, saying the appointments would assist in relieving some of the salaries and stipends schools had been burdened with for the past 20 years.

Since 1996, schools have not received any additional funding from the Department of Education to appoint non-teaching staff and in many cases have had to pay caretakers, cleaners and secretaries from their own funds.

The lack of such staff at schools is one of the issues the NAEF has consistently raised since it was formed in early 2014.

NAEF secretary Richard Draai said: “We welcome and support any decision taken by the department which alleviates some of the pressures experienced by our schools.

“It is the department’s job to recruit administrative staff to work at schools.

“All we have been asking for years now is for them to do their jobs and appoint these people.”

Draai, who is also chairman of the school governing body at Bethvale Primary School, said the school would be one of those benefiting from the appointments.

“We have been paying people to assist from our own funds and through fundraising initiatives.

“However, we have not been able to secure any suitably qualified people in these positions.

“Some schools can only afford to pay R2 000 at the most, but now this will be paid by the department and qualified people will be hired.”

Draai said it would take the pressure off teachers and principals who had to focus on fundraising to pay non-teaching staff at schools.

Paterson High School principal Dr Siven Pillay said the school would also be benefiting from the appointments.

He said the appointment of an administrative assistant would assist the school’s limited finances.

“We have been without a secretary for the past five years now,” Pillay said.

“We have been paying someone from our SGB funds but, as a no-fee school, this has been a strain on the school as you can always use that money elsewhere.

“It is also good when you can get the staff you are meant to get.”

Mtima was unable to provide an estimate on how many administrative assistants would be deployed to schools in the Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage districts.