AFTER starting with more than 35000 staff five years ago, the Mpumalanga education department has managed to trim its staff by more than 2600. Tabling his departmental budget speech for the 1999/2000 financial year, education MEC David Mabuza on Tuesday said the 35474 posts he started with in the department have since dropped to 32804. Mabuza said the trimming of staff had been achieved by rationalising, redeployment and natural attrition.