MORE than 60 000 pupils in the Eastern Cape have boycotted classes because they still have no stationery. Education at more than 200 schools in the Eastern Cape has ground to a halt as frustrated learners, teacher unions and parents enter the second week of a massive protest against the non-supply of stationery.
Teacher unions say students in the district of Maluti were being forced to use old and torn stationery because education authorities failed to deliver new supplies.
The boycott of classes began two weeks ago. Stationery was supposed to have reached schools before they reopened for the academic year in January.
Eastern Cape provincial education authorities, who last year claimed that all schools had received their stationery, this week blamed inefficiency on the part of its officials for the problem.
Eastern Cape education department spokesperson Phaphama Mfenyana said education officials had lost requisitions for stationery from the Maluti district. The requisitions had apparently not even been processed.
He said his department intervened in January when the problem was first identified.
“The department facilitated supplementary requisitions in January. Stationery is now starting to be delivered in that area,” he said.
The problem, though, he said, was that delivery was slow. The stationery is being collected from Kokstad, about 70km from Maluti, and only two bakkies are being used.
He said his department had requested assistance from the Department of Public Works. However, he said delivery was also being affected by the protest action. Some suppliers had found schools empty when they went to deliver the material.
The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu), which is leading the protest action, has called on its members to embark on a “go slow” campaign.
As part of the campaign, about 2 000 teachers go to school each day, but they leave for home at 11am.
The organisation said the campaign has affected about 215 schools, with an average of 300 students at each school.
Sadtu said its action, which is supported by parents and learners, seeks to demonstrate their unhappiness and is aimed at putting pressure on the provincial education authorities to act swiftly.
“We will continue to put pressure on the provincial government until our demands are met. If our demands are not met we will launch further demonstrations to ensure that they take action,” Sadtu representative for Maluti, Mbulelo Mpupu, said.
Last week, said Mpupu, Sadtu members, students and parents staged a “sit in” at the education district office in Maluti and handed over a memorandum detailing their grievances.
He said district education authorities who were cooperating, sent their memorandum to the provincial department of education, which in turn promised to deliver the material last week.
“They brought in a supplier to the scene of the protest and presented a schedule of the supply. They said there would be deliveries on April 16, 17 and 19 but it did not happen,” Mpupu said.
He said the union was concerned that the education crisis in Maluti might lead to high failure rates at the affected schools. Grade 10, 11 and 12 students would be the most affected.
Many of these students have bought their own stationery but they are taking part in the protest action to express “solidarity”.
Mpupu said all students have been “demoralised” by the situation. He blamed the provincial education authorities for failing to act “effectively” to address the crisis.
“The stationery was supposed to have arrived in December last year when schools closed. We alerted the department when we found that they were not there in January, but they did nothing and they are only starting to shift now that we have launched this campaign,” Mpupu said.
Mfenyana said his department was doing everything possible to address the crisis. He said education officials met members of the education forum, which is made up of community members, in Maluti on Thursday to discuss the matter.
“Students are losing valuable time and they are suffering. We want to ensure that schooling in that area returns to normal by Monday next week. We will continue to address all the concerns that the people have,” he said.
But Mpupu insists that the department’s efforts are too late. He accused provincial education authorities of “sabotaging the education” of children in the area.
“What we [teachers] have been doing, in terms of academic issues, since January cannot be authentic because students were forced to use rough books and loose paper.
“When we sent signals to the department about this problem, we received zero response. The students are already disillusioned about this whole thing because the department mishandled it,” Mpupu said, adding that his organisation would lead a protest march at the weekend.
As the protests intensify, the students are the ones losing out. Their prospects of writing mid-year exams are dim, even if the stationery is delivered.