Cape Town - Grade R teachers from various schools in the Western Cape took to the streets on Tuesday over permanent employment issues.
The teachers, some of whom have been teaching in the foundation phase for 13 years, were joined by the Grade R Crisis Committee to the provincial legislature to hand over their grievances.
Committee chairperson, Somikazi Mtya said their first march was in July but there had been no response.
Their next action will be determined by the Western Cape Education’s (WCED) response, Mtya said.
“About 95% of Grade R teachers are women so it was important for us to use this significant day to voice out our cries.
“We have similar pain as the women who marched in 1956 fighting for a cause, but our cause is different.
“They paved the way for us to fight for our rights, which is our qualifications being recognised and permanency as Grade R teachers.
“No more empty promises and delaying tactics, permanency was promised by 2012.
“Not one positive implementation (has taken place) in the last 10 years. We want a retirement fund for those teachers who retired after the promised permanency. We also want Grade R to be compulsory, as the CAPS document starts from Grade R,” said Mtya.
Rashida Lewis has been a Grade R teacher for the past 13 years and remains hopeful that one day she will be permanently employed.
“We were requested to upskill our qualifications and we did so moving from level four to level five ECD.
“We were also required to get a Grade R diploma in ECD so overall we had to study for about 7 years through CPUT.
“We love and enjoy our work however the salary is peanuts and we have no benefits,” said Lewis.
Another teacher, Ruwayda Jones, who has been in the sector for nearly two decades said every year they left work in fear because they were on contracts.
“Imagine working for a company or a department for more than 10 years but you are still under a contract, no permanent post.
“One day you might just wake up with no job. Food and fuel prices are rising but salaries are not. Enough is enough,” said Jones.
Education MEC David Maynier said: “We consider Grade R to be a vital year in preparing learners for the foundation phase. Unfortunately, the national government does not consider Grade R to be a compulsory school year, and as such does not fund provincial governments to provide it. The practitioners are marching to the wrong sphere of government, they should be calling on the national government to provide the necessary funding for us to provide posts to Grade R teachers.”
Cape Times