THE Northern Areas Education Forum will hold a meeting tonight for parents to come up with a new plan of action about the education crisis in the area.
Tonight’s strategy meeting follows a decision taken by parents to allow children to return to school following a four-week shutdown while negotiations continue with the Department of Education.
Parents have also decided the department should attend to all demands by March 18 before further steps are taken.
Northern Areas Education Forum secretary Richard Draai said: “We will come up with a new plan that shows we are still serious about our concerns.”
He said the meeting would take place at Arcadia High School at 6pm.
Draai said there had been some progress with the multidisciplinary task team assembled by premier Phumulo Masualle.
“We are waiting for reports regarding teacher placement, budgets and the training of school governing bodies.”
Republic Primary School SGB chairman Wilfred Swartbooi said the shutdown had not been successful.
“But as a parent I have no regrets. I know it did affect the kids, but those responsible for this in the department now understand our frustrations,” Swartbooi said.
DA education MPL Edmund van Vuuren said while 30 teachers had been appointed to northern areas schools, there were still double that amount of vacant posts.
“Parents should never close a school. They closed the schools for nearly four weeks, but it had no impact on the department,” Van Vuuren said.
Education Department spokesman Loyiso Pulumani said since Masualle established a task team 112 teachers had been appointed and placed at schools in the Port Elizabeth district.
“The challenge with the rest of the posts is that schools were requested to provide clear profiles so that we can assess the nature of each vacancy,” Pulumani said.
“Many schools have not yet done this. There are schools that have not yet informed the department of additional posts,”
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