Race to fill vacant EC teaching posts

Thursday, January 12, 2012

East London - The Eastern Cape Education Department is scrambling to fill vacant teaching posts in some of the province's most understaffed schools.

Department spokesperson Loyiso Pulumani said officials were busy issuing letters of employment to over 500 temporary teachers in 10 of the province's districts.

"These teachers are qualified and registered with the South African Council of Educators (SACE). This is an interim measure to ensure that all schools have teachers while the process of finalising permanent post provisioning continues," said Pulumani.

He said the post provisioning process would entail moving teachers from overstaffed schools to schools where their services were urgently required.

He added that once the process was finalised, the department would have a reliable profile of teacher needs in the province, enabling the department to issue a valid recruitment bulletin that would result in permanent employment into vacancies.

"That will assist us to ensure that the majority of teaching posts are permanent and that all teachers' services are optimally utilised. This is crucial for finally ensuring lasting stability in education in the Eastern Cape," said Pulumani.