DA politicians overseeing basic education are hoping the essential services committee will support their call to have the minimum service level include the proviso that no children are left unsupervised when teachers strike.
MPs Nomsa Marchesi and Sonja Boshoff, MPL Edmund van Vuuren and Bay mayor Athol Trollip made their verbal submissions to the essential services committee at the CCMA in Nelson Mandela Bay on Wednesday.
They argued for a minimum service level to be established at schools so that children are not left unsupervised when teachers strike or attend union meetings.
Boshoff said the committee would review all the submissions and take further action only after its final meeting next week.
Marchesi said there was at present no legislation on the issue of leaving pupils unattended.
She said the DA hoped its submission would find its way into law.
“We are not looking at vacancies of teachers today, we are looking at our pupils always being safe.
“There has to be a minimum number of teachers at school at all times.
“The committee will decide on what that minimum is.
“It is also looking at the issues of having enough nutrition and security services at the school to ensure that pupils are well taken care of.”
However, education department spokesperson Malibongwe Mtima said the department was already attending to the issue through its plan to fast-track the filling of about 600 non-teaching staff vacancies by the end of July.
“The massive recruitment drive is part of ensuring more efficient service delivery for the people of this province and to propel responsiveness of the system,” Mtima said.
Department head Themba Kojana said: “There are more than 30 directors’ and assistant directors’ posts advertised, 14 schools will have guards for the first time, while 17 other schools will receive caretakers.
“Others include 46 cleaners and 500 interns,” Kojana said.
Interns will earn a stipend of R5,000 while directors could earn between R900,000 and R1.3m.
Kojana emphasised that no schools would be left out of the process provided they had submitted their requests.
Mtima said he was unable to provide details on how many of the vacancies would be filled in Nelson Mandela Bay at this stage, as applications only closed on July 20.
Speaking on the issue of safety in schools on Wednesday, and his announcement in October of the municipality’s intention to take over 17 abandoned schools in the Bay to use as community centres, Trollip said the process was already under way.
“Using the facilities will prevent vandalism.
“But that process will take a long a time – the wheels of government grind very slowly.
“But we are determined not to lose another school like others that have been carried away brick by brick.
“I can’t tell how far it is, but we have made the applications and we want that to happen,” Trollip said.