Frustrated with the shortage of teachers at Humansdorp Secondary School, the School Governing Body (SGB), parents and teachers have closed the doors to the school indefinitely.
Yesterday, April 27, the SGB sent a letter informing all teachers, parents, and learners that from today, April 28, the school will be closed until further notice.
The letter stated:
The letter further said the school could not continue remaining open with the shortage of teachers.
“Due to the shortage of teachers, both learners and teachers are at a disadvantage,” stated the letter.
“The SGB therefore has the interest of the school, teachers and learners at heart.”
According to Ward Councillor, Jaques Alexander, who is also the vice-chairperson at Humansdorp Secondary School, as per the Department of Education, the staff establishment of 2021 for the year 2022 amounted to a total of 66 of which at least eight teachers have continued waiting for their letters of appointment.
He said on Friday, April 22 the school met with the Department of Education to inform them that if by April 26, they did not adhere to their requests to provide letters of appointment to the eight teachers at the school, the school would be closed indefinitely.
Alexander further said on Monday, April 25 a meeting was held at the school with at least 200 parents where they were informed of the requests made to the Department of Education.
He said since the Department of Education has not honoured their requests, they have decided to close the school indefinitely.
Apart from the teacher shortages, Alexander said the Department of Education has not paid the school’s municipal bill since the beginning of the year.
“The municipal bill for the school has not been paid by the Department of Education since 2021 and an enormous amount of money is now owed to the municipality,” said Alexander.
He said due to the non-payment the electricity at the school was cut on Tuesday, April 26, which was the case at many schools throughout Kouga.
“The non-payment of municipal services by the Department of Education will also have a negative effect on the quality of education and especially the conditions and environment in winter,” said Alexander.
“The risk of no electricity can result and contribute to vandalism and break-ins as the batteries of the school’s alarm system only has a few hours of standby.”
Kouga Express has contacted the Eastern Cape Department of Education for comment and will update this story once their comment has been received.
