GOOD’s Secretary-General and Member of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament, Brett Herron. Photo: Ayanda Ndamane/Independent Newspapers
Amid the 2,407 looming job cuts for teachers in the Western Cape, the GOOD Party has welcomed the agreement of an urgent debate in the Western Cape Provincial Parliament.
GOOD’s Secretary-General and Member of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament, Brett Herron said this comes after the party requested the schedule debate set to take place on September 12.
“The government’s notice to school principals and governing bodies of the proposed job cuts has led to widespread concern about the impact of this decision on the right of teachers to job security, and of all South Africans to a quality education system.
“Unsurprisingly, this regressive step will have a disproportionate impact on school communities in less affluent areas, which will bear the brunt of the teacher losses as their parent bodies won’t be able to afford the costs to replace them,” Herron said.
The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) said the job cuts come amid budget constraints.
This has caused an uproar not only in the education sector but also among various organisations and civilians, as it is expected to have a domino effect on other sectors.
The job cuts will take effect on January 1, 2025.
“We cannot sit by and allow decisions to go unchallenged that will undoubtedly add to the already severe inequality in the Western Cape. There are solutions to the province’s engineered funding crisis, which simply involve making better budgetary choices.
“Billions of Rands have been assigned to non-core functions over the next three years, including innovation and safety, while a relatively small portion of this money could ensure no teachers’ jobs need be lost,” Herron said.
It is the duty of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament, as a legislature representing the people of the Western Cape, to hold the executive accountable for the decisions they make, he added.
robin.francke@iol.co.za
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