Durban - The KwaZulu-Natal department of education has done its homework in addressing some of its challenges of the past and is ready to commence the 2023 academic year.
Schools in coastal provinces will resume learning on January 18 while those inland reopen on Wednesday.
Some of the difficulties the department has grappled with in the past included the floods in April last year that affected 630 schools, leaving 101 inaccessible and doing extensive damage to 124, racism allegations at some schools, poor sanitation, staff shortages, pupils’ violent conduct, vandalism, and learning material shortages.
In spite of their myriad challenges, Muzi Mahlambi, the department’s head of communications, was confident it was ready.
“We say this because when we closed last year, all schools that were meant to receive textbooks and learning material received them.
“Admissions were finished on September 31. Now we are doing mopups of the few admissions that were carried over due to various reasons.” Mahlambi said the department had already discussed a draft academic improvement plan, which would be further adapted in accordance with the matric results in the province.
While he was positive about the state of readiness for 2023, he said the inclement weather conditions and possible flooding remained a concern. Mahlambi said all schools that were unable to operate as a result of last year’s floods had received attention and would be operational.
However, any new damage would be the result of the weather conditions ahead of schools’ reopening. He confirmed that staffing issues had received attention.
“We had consultative meetings from September with the teacher unions, discussed those issues and we are good to go. A few positions could have since opened up, possibly due to death or individuals relocating, which are issues out of our control. But we will definitely fill those,” he said.
Mahlambi said the national school nutrition programme would be operational from day one and priority would be given to the improvement of educational programmes as it was a core focus.
Thirona Moodley, chief executive of the National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of SA (Naptosa), said the 2022 academic year had been successful in that it had the least challenges after returning to normalcy following the Covid-19 pandemic. Moodley accepted that some challenges were beyond the department’s control, especially the ones brought about by the floods. She said finances were a challenge for the department.
“Finances play a huge role because there are a large number of vacancies in the department’s administration in district offices that were not filled and have not been filled for years. This greatly impacts service delivery at school.” She suggested the department find creative solutions to address these challenges as an increase in funding from the Treasury was not likely.
Moodley said they were not pleased with class sizes and they required a reduction in order to improve results. She added that refusal of movement by surplus teachers warranted disciplinary action, and called on school principals to communicate immediately when they required a substitute or temporary teachers, to ensure posts were filled and learning continued.
Mbuso Thusi, 45, from uMlazi, who holds a teaching qualification, viewed the 2023 academic year as another opportunity to seek employment. He has not been able to land a teaching post since obtaining his qualification in 2014.
This comes after he left his job in retail to pursue his studies. Thusi said he had submitted numerous job applications without any success, and learning about his peers’ celebrating their landing jobs had worsened his state of depression
SUNDAY TRIBUNE