Cape Town – Khayelitsha parents have slammed the provincial education department for withdrawing two administration posts at Enkanini Primary, leaving the school of more than 1 000 pupils without a secretary for more than a year.
Enkanini Primary School SGB member Andile Lili said the department had not responded to questions or requests to advertise the posts.
“Without doubt we will shut down the school. The school has not been with the secretary since last year, instead a general worker at school was hired as a secretary. Tell me if that person will do the proper secretary work?
“The department did not give explanation as to why they withdrew the secretary posts. We blame our MEC and legislature members who are not on the ground to assess the conditions of schools, they are there to serve themselves not the poor.
"We’ve been waiting over a year for the department to reply to our demand,” Lili said.
Nompumelelo Xinwa, whose child is in Grade 3, said it was a constant fight for basic services at the school.
“Which school can be operative without the secretary for a year? I urge the department not to take us for granted.
"At the beginning of this month we were fighting for the placing of children at the school and now it’s this. They must advertise the post as soon as possible,” Xinwa said.
Department spokesperson Kerry Mauchline said all posts currently allocated to schools were filled at present.
“The school SGB has written to the department regarding a second admin clerk post, which was not part of the school allocation of posts in 2019.
"Annual reviews are conducted in respect of public service allocations to ordinary public schools in line with the norms and standards approved in 2011.
"The annual decision on new post allocations has not yet been made for 2020, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programme survey is currently being completed by schools.”
Mauchline said the survey provided the department with information on the tenth day of the school year if all pupils registered were at school, the deregistration of learners who had not arrived at schools and the list of educators.
This allowed the WCED to determine where additional posts would be allocated based on demand, infrastructure and availability.
“Principals complete this survey on the Centralised Educational Management Information System to indicate their resource needs.
“However, the total number of learners in the Western Cape school system has increased by over 130 000 over the past five years, without a corresponding increase in budget to build extra schools, hire more teachers and staff, and provide additional educational resources.
“The current budget is incredibly strained, making it extremely hard to manage the high demand for school places, teachers, staff and infrastructure,” Mauchline said.