KwaZulu-Natal Education MEC Senzo Mchunu

The Witness reported today that a KwaZulu-Natal teacher has been chillaxing on sick leave for eight years while the Department of Education has been faithfully paying her salary every month. Crazy.

The teacher, from Zululand, has not been in the classroom since 15 October 2004 and has cost the department R397 911 for 1 615 teaching days.

Another teacher from the eThekwini region last taught on 18 April 2007 costing the department R1 022 484 for the 1 119 days he spent on sick leave. This teacher earned more because he was on a higher salary grade.

It is no wonder that we have some of the worst education on the planet. Textbooks are not delivered. Teachers take permanent paid leave. It’s nuts. Provincial education spokesperson Muzi Mahlambi said teachers on the list would receive random visits from teams set up by department head Nkosinathi Sishi and MEC Senzo Mchunu.

The Department said they are going to attempt to recover the money. What is even more incredible is that the report suggests that those who are deemed fit would be instructed to return to work. Not fired. Not disciplined. Simply returned to work. They have been paid for almost the same period of time it takes for a kid to matriculate whilst not teaching a single child and they can keep their job? It’s all too much.

However, KwaZulu-Natal Education MEC Senzo Mchunu has said that he has a plan to fix education in the province. He told government officials, union and civil society representatives in Pietermaritzburg during the first of several consultative meetings that:

 Our schooling system is almost in tatters from where I stand.

IOL reported some of the planned changes Mchunu wants implemented:

 Increasing access to technical, agricultural and maritime schools.

- Ensuring that children are able to enrol in two years of early childhood development programmes before they start Grade 1.

- Creating uniformity in having only two types of schools (primary, from Grade R to Grade 7, and secondary, from Grade 8 to Grade 12).

- Proposing the merging and closing of KZN’s 1 372 so-called non-viable schools.

Good Luck MEC Mchunu, you are going to need it.

[Source: iafrica, iol]