Celani Sikhakhane
The Department of Education in KZN has come under fire for employing teachers’ assistants as teachers, leaving thousands of qualified educators jobless.
On Thursday the KZN Unemployed Qualified Educators (KZNUQE) took to the streets of Pietermaritzburg to raise awareness over their concerns.
The organisation’s Mlekeleli Radebe told Scrolla.Africa that they flagged the matter with the department last March, but that their concerns have fallen on deaf ears.
According to Radebe, the teaching assistants are paid a monthly salary of R6,500, despite them not holding any formal teaching qualification.
“And now they are no longer assisting. Instead they are stealing our jobs because they have now been placed in classes to teach. We want this thing to stop,” said Radebe.
It is understood a new recruitment system was created in order to capture all the qualified teachers who are looking for jobs “but it doesn’t work” says Radebe, as they are unable to upload their information onto the system and struggle to register or log on to the web portal.
The protestors said on Thursday that they want the Department to ensure that the software runs smoothly.
They have also called on the Department to ensure that Level One posts are advertised in bulletins, to avoid the prospect of teaching assistants availing of positions intended for qualified candidates only.
Dr Barnye Mthembu, the acting Head of Department, assured the protestors that the department will attempt to address their concerns as soon as possible.
The Department has previously stated that it had not anticipated such a high number of applicants when it designed the online system. It resolved to address the matter and announced on 12 March that the app had been rectified and was up and running once again.
