22 January 2025
WESTERN CAPE EDUCATION: WEALTHY, PREDOMINANTLY WHITE SCHOOLS SPARED FROM TEACHER POST CUTS
The DA-Led Western Cape government has once again shown its true colours and prioritised services in predominately white areas, leaving mainly black and coloured areas under-resourced.
Common sense would have assumed the Province’s 2,407 teacher post cuts would be evenly distributed across the 1,468 public schools. In a fair manner, ensuring under-resourced schools don’t suffer even more.
(Job cuts necessitated by the province siphoning off R8 Billion over the next 3 years of National Treasury funds it receives for education to be used on other discretionary projects not related to education.)
A fairly simplistic assessment would suggest 1 or 2 teacher posts needed to be lost at each school.
But shocking statistics released by Dr Seelan Naidoo, reveal 437 schools escaped the cuts entirely.
111 of those who received no reduction in staff were from Quintile 5 (Q5) schools, the wealthiest public schools in the province.
Of the 1,031 schools that did receive cuts, former CED (Cape Education Department) schools, institutions that remain predominantly white and make up the majority of Q5 schools received the fewest cuts.
In stark contrast, the heaviest cuts were borne by former HOR (House of Representatives) schools, which predominantly serve Black and Coloured learners.
Unsurprisingly, these schools are largely concentrated in Q1 to Q3, the province’s most under-resourced categories.
Yet the WCED pushes the narrative that Q5 schools are suffering cuts, conveniently ignoring the massive scale of losses in poorer areas.
As GOOD we demand the Western Cape Education MEC, David Maynier to provide the rationale of how the post cuts were allocated.
The Province has betrayed learners in underprivileged communities for far too long.
It’s hard to ignore this DA pattern of providing services to the privileged few.
It’s time for accountability.
Media enquiries:
Brett Herron, GOOD: Secretary-General & Member of the Western Cape Parliament
Cell: 082 5183264
Email: bretth@forgood.org.za
Samantha Jackson, GOOD: Media Manager
Cell: 083 5509875
Email: samantha@forgood.org.za