Durban - Pupils, parents and School Governing Body (SGB) members protested outside Siyathuthuka Secondary School in Newton A in Inanda yesterday against the shortage of teachers at the school.
The school has more than 600 pupils with just seven teachers.
The parents and pupils said the situation had hindered teaching and learning and they would not allow the school to be opened unless the matter was attended to.
Matric pupil Simangele Shabalala, 20, said: “You find one teacher teaching more than four grades in the school, and some classes even go an entire day without learning. In our class since the year started we are behind in the syllabus compared to other schools. That is not good to start the year, especially as we are doing matric.”
Parents said it was pointless to send their children to school when they were not able to learn.
Parent Samkelisiwe Khumalo said they had meetings with the principal but realised the issue was not under his control, therefore they had decided to embark on protest action.
“Sometimes when my children come back they tell me they did not learn anything at school and that is not supposed to happen. The reason we are protesting is that we want what is best for our children.
“There are subjects that are not properly taught because of teacher shortages. All the teachers that are currently here are overloaded with work. It is painful to us as parents to see our children going to school but coming back without being taught. The department has to solve this issue,” she said.
SGB chairperson Linda Dlomo said parents were irate.
“When we discussed this on Sunday with the parents, we initially wanted to go to the circuit but the parents could not take this any more and they said we are going to close the school until our demands are met.
“We are concerned and we want this to be addressed as the year has just begun. This school did not perform well in last year’s matric exams and we as parents know that the main contributing factor to that is the scarcity of teachers. We believe that once it has been resolved then they can perform well,” Dlomo said.
South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) KwaZulu-Natal secretary Nomarashiya Caluza said that last year in November teachers were allocated to all schools.
She advised the school to contest the allocation given to them and submit their enrolment statistics so the department could review their allocation and get more teachers.
Approached for comment, KwaZulu-Natal Education Department spokesperson Muzi Mahlambi said the department was aware of the matter and was allocating six more teachers to the school.
He did not indicate when the teachers would arrive at the school.