TEACHERS SHORTAGE AT KARIEGA SCHOOL RESULTS IN SHUT DOWN BY PARENTS

By Phumlani Saul

The School Governing Body (SGB) made the decision following a meeting with parents to address the issue at 07h30 on Wednesday morning.

This left the school’s more than 1400 learners and their teachers locked outside the gates of the building in Dower Avenue.

The SGB is believed to be disgruntled due to the shortage of four Heads of Department’s (HOD’s) and five post-level one vacancies.

Acting Principal, William Human, said mostly grade eight and nine learners were affected.

“Certain grade eight and nine classes have been affected with no teaching in some subjects since the beginning of the academic year,” he said.

Human said they need HOD’s for Social Sciences, Commercial Sciences, English, and isiXhosa.

There are also post-level one vacancies for isiXhosa, Afrikaans, Technology, Natural and Social Sciences.

“All these subjects, except Xhosa, then need to be taught in both English and Afrikaans,” he said.

Human said this is a long-running issue that the department has been aware of since last year.

According to the SGB they previously emailed the department to highlight their concerns and to set up a meeting with the Education District Officer (EDO) on Monday.

This meeting, however, was not honoured due to the EDO’s prior commitments. 

The SGB and other concerned parents marched to the town’s district education office after closing the school and obtaining permission from the police to do so.