“GATVOL” KZN UNEMPLOYED QUALIFIED EDUCATORS (KZNUQE) EVENTUALLY DROPPED THE BOMBSHELL THUS BREAKING THE CHAIN OF SILENCE REGARDING THE HIRING SYSTEM THAT ROBS THEM OF THEIR FUTURE.

 

What is the reason behind unemployment of qualified educators in the province of KwaZulu-Natal?

Nobody knows, but definitely not incompetence or lack of qualifications.

Another question that I wonder as a community member is, "what does it take for a qualified educator to get employed in the province of KwaZulu-Natal?"  

Nobody knows again, the thought; maybe it takes to know someone in the department.

I have been going on and on trying to get answers which are not there regarding this unfair hiring system particularly in KZN, I eventually thought of doing some research and guess what I found.  More than twenty groups of unemployed qualified educators in just 1 social media platform.  This gives you a clear understand of the situation that the province is facing in this particularly department. 

This strikes me and any sober minded person as a well calculated deliberate move to destroy our kids’ future before it even begins.  “Strike the shepherd and the entire sheepfold will scatter apart.”  Of course the effect may be quite visible on unemployed qualified educators but the damage is equally huge and more upon learners which are being poisoned by unqualified educators in this process. 

The saddest part about this matter is that, criminals are also preying on these destitute young men and women, fabricating false interviews with devious intentions to either rob, rape or smuggle them to other countries in human trafficking.

In my advocacy research I came across a social media group which has decided to break the chain of silence, and voice out their dissatisfaction regarding the issue of unemployment of qualified educators in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, which comes as a result of a number of issues provided on their memorandum of demand.

These qualified but unemployed educators are finally GATVOL of living in total darkness regarding their unemployment situation which seems to worsen by the day with no one bothering to give them any direction of the processes and plans of the department of education in KZN. 

This well organized massive group of unemployed educators in KZN has formed a task team to co-ordinate this matter.  One of the cherries on top is the system that has been introduced in the province whereby, they are required to upload their details onto the database through the app which is said to be misbehaving half the time. 

Some state that they have difficulties uploading documents onto the app and some cannot even register and to some it is the issue of logging in to check the progress of their applications.

That is just the small piece of the pie, but to some it up, they have described the Application as malfunctioning and having a number of technical issues. 

Another is none other than that of unqualified public members being hired as educators.

 

On the other hand educators who are currently employed state that they are overloaded with learners in classes as there is a shortage of educators.

Another concern raised by the community is the issue of Educators’ Assistants, which have now been employed to perform all duties of Qualified Educators(cheap labor).  

This is not merely a concern for these unemployed educators, but for the community at large.  A number of questions remain unanswered especially in the province of KwaZulu-Natal as to why are they not being employed, considering there are posts in our schools.

“As members of the public and parents, we really cannot keep quiet in this regard, how can an unqualified person be trusted to deliver quality education to our children, who are considered to be the future of this country, is this what freedom stands for?” she added, “Only in kuvuki land.”

Another parent and community member said, “These unqualified people don’t even know what they are doing, in one of the schools at Kwadukuza, particularly Stanger ML Sultan Secondary School, learners complain that one of their teacher comes to class only to take selfies of her make-up and remain on social media for the whole day.  As parents we end up with loads of school work as children come home with no slight idea of what needs to be done.” 

This is however a very little piece of the pie, as in another incident, a qualified educator had been given a 12 months contract, on completion of the contract, she was told it wouldn’t be renewed however a lady who had been sanitizing learners in that school, was then given the task of that particular educator particularly in Kwadukuza(Stanger) and when she proved to be without a slight knowledge of what needs to be done in a classroom, the HOD contacted the former educator requesting her own file to be given to that particular incompetent and unqualified educator, what a shame, a waste of kids’ future and exploitation of qualified educators in this province.”

“As parents and the community we are really concerned about the future of our kids under this education system, I personally feel, this system has failed under the government that we expect to better understand the pain of a black child.” 

As parents and citizens of the Republic of South Africa we totally support the KZN Unemployed Qualified Educators.  And we urge the National government of South Africa to intervene and look into the issue of these Unemployed Qualified Educators particularly in KZN.  A statement made by one of concerned parents, “These unemployed qualified educators studied very hard and graduated in their fields of studies, they did not just receive training, they paid for their qualifications and endured four long years of study and that should count for something.”  

KZN Unemployed Qualified Educators(KZNUQE) are prepared to march to the provincial government buildings if that’s what it takes.

 

Below is a MEMORANDUM OF DEMAND designed by the UKZNUQE task-team.

 

   Memorandum of demand  

From: KZN UNEMPLOYED QUALIFIED EDUCATORS (KZNUQE) 

To: KWAZULU NATAL DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 

CC: SADTU 

NATU 

COSAS 

SGB 

We as unemployed qualified educators have demands that we need the department to look at and take actions as soon as possible. We demand the following: 

1. Deactivating of an App and database as a process of hiring the educators.

● KZN DOE Application- It is our experience that the Application that the department has provided is ineffective in its function. It suffers from a multitude of technical problems and malfunctions. We advise the department to investigate our claims. 

● Database employment drafts lack the transparency that is necessary to protect the department from internal abuses and the ability to protect the prospective educators from exploitation.  

2. We appeal to the department to return to compiling bulletins for level 1 educator vacancies. 

3. Database lack transparency and this allows this provides opportunities for those who seek to benefit unduly from its shortcomings 

4. As we have highlighted the deficiencies of the database and applications, we implore the department to permit principals to accept the documents of prospective educators and offer recommendations to the department of education. The schools are the closest points of contact between the department and all prospective recruits.

5. We appeal to the department of education to advertise vacancies. Our growing concern is that there is a lack of clarity as to where educators are needed and which educators are needed. This places an unnecessary burden on the existing teaching staff. 

6. We appeal to the department to provide a more transparent interview process.  

7. We would like the department to make the modern conveniences of the 4th industrial revolution part of the interview processes. It is our belief that should be in line with the current COVID-19 regulations. At times it is imperative that the department allocate candidates without going through the traditional processes. Under such circumstances, we ask beseech the department of education to subject all newly employed educators under a 6 month performance review. 8. We appeal to the government to re-evaluate the subject allocation practices within the department. It is a subject of great concern that within certain schools, there are teachers who carry the burden of teaching a multitude of disciplines to several classes. This further indicates that the department is in dire need of staff. 

9. It is our belief that experience as a prerequisite of employment robs the department of the opportunity to acquire new talent and robs the graduate of the opportunity to serve his/her community. It is the responsibility of the governance structure to secure the future of learners by implementing good policies to provide continuity to the education of the province. 

10. We implore the department to investigate the falling number of schools which offer economics subject stream. There is a growing concern that more and more learners who would have otherwise been brilliant accounting, economics and business majors are being compelling to fall into science and general streams. This ultimately leads to a majority of these learners to not fulfill their potential, thus producing mediocre matric results at best. 

11. We request that a school may employ only fully qualified unemployed educators for SGB posts that may arise.  

In writing this document, we hope that the department will engage with us. Our aim is to assist the province in its mission to provide quality education to the citizens of the provinces. We are concerned that the province will suffer the long term effects of “braindrain” due to losing its teaching to neighboring provinces and the international community.  

We hope this memorandum will receive your full attention and we will wait for your response by the end of this date 01 April 2021.        

KZN UNEMPLOYED QUALIFIED EDUCATOR