DURBAN - THE SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) on Tuesday staged a picket at the KwaZulu-Natal legislature in Pietermaritzburg, where they handed over a memorandum of understanding with a list of their demands.
Sadtu recently called for a bilateral meeting with the Department of Education in KZN to discuss a number of issues including the non-appointment and non-payment of teachers as well as the termination of some teachers’ employment, and how this is impacting on learning in the province.
Sadtu said the reality is that pupils are not being taught in schools as subject teachers have not been available since the start of the school year.
The union also raised the issue of Grade R teachers.
Premier Sihle Zikalala and MEC for Education in KZN, Kwazi Mshengu, were present when the Sadtu leadership handed over the memorandum of understanding (mou).
Commenting after the picket, Mshengu said the memorandum reinforced a call that his department had made regarding the cutting of their budget by a staggering R6.3 billion.
Mshengu said they needed more funding to stabilise KZN's education sector.
"We also need the funding to usher in quality education. The cut has affected the budget particularly for educators and we have schools that are not sufficiently staffed," Mshengu said.
He added that his department was unable to replace teachers who were on leave with substitute teachers and this impacted on teaching.
"We are happy that the premier came out to receive the mou and committed that the government will urgently look into the matters so we can achieve stability in this sector," he said.
IOL