Teacher union, Naptosa is opposing the cuts. (Rosetta Msimango/City Press)
- The WCED issued a circular to principals, educators and school-based staff about post allocations for 2025.
- The WCED faces a R3.8 billion budget shortfall over the next three years.
- Consequently, 2 407 teacher posts will be cut, effective from January 2025.
More than 2 400 teacher posts will be cut in the Western Cape from 1 January 2025, according to a circular issued by the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) on Tuesday.
In the circular, the WCED’s head of education, Brent Walters, said the department only received 64% of the cost of the public sector wage agreement, with the remaining 36% to be funded by the province, according to GroundUp.
Walters said, in an effort to cut spending, the WCED had frozen the recruitment of non-teaching staff at head office and across districts, with a current vacancy rate of 21%, and had also cut spending across its directorates.
According to the WCED, a circular was issued on 21 November 2023, indicating that to maintain the number of permanent teaching posts in the system and stability in the schools, “cost containment measures” needed to be implemented.
But, despite budget cuts of R2.5 billion, the WCED still faces a R3.8 billion budget shortfall over the next three years, Walters said.
“Considering the growing budget shortfall and fiscal uncertainty, we have no alternative but to announce the reduction of the educator post allocation by 2 407 posts, effective 1 January 2025 – the start of the 2025 school year,” Walters said.
READ | High Court orders Gauteng education department to consider Curro school’s matric exam centre application
According to the National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa (Naptosa), there are currently 37 135 teachers in the Western Cape and 34 728 posts are now proposed for 2025.
“We can now either run into the red financially or we can reluctantly reduce the number of educators in our system in order to afford our current wage bill,” Walters said.
He said schools would receive its 2025 staff allocations on Friday.
“We should never have been placed in this position and it is a fight we share with other sectors, such as health.”
He said the Western Cape had already taken steps “to address the impact of the decision not to fully fund educator salaries, as well as raised the matter at the Council of Education Ministers’ meeting for urgent action”.
Naptosa’s Western Cape CEO, Riedwaan Ahmed, said the union opposed the cuts.
He said the process “will inevitably result in the non-renewal of contracts” and some teachers being classified as “excess”.
Ahmed added:
This will have a negative impact on the education of every child in every classroom in this province.
“The ratio the WCED is projecting – one teacher for every 36 learners – does not translate to the reality within our classrooms in the Western Cape. … while the WCED says they want to ensure education for every learner in every classroom, that has now certainly gone out the window,” he said.
“The contract posts are going to go first… The WCED says they are pro-poor and we’ve asked them not to touch the foundation phase. But we’ll see on Friday,” Ahmed added.
