I am writing in utter desperation with massive problems I am facing with the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) that I feel should be public knowledge.
In March of this year, I was employed as an educator by the GDE at a night school in the south of Johannesburg under the Adult Basic Education and Training (Abet.)
Our learners range from the age of 18 to the age of 65 and through this programme are afforded an opportunity to get a Grade 12 qualification.
I was more than happy to join this initiative and offer my skills to help underprivileged learners achieve success.
The Abet system works according to a claim system whereby educators fills in and submits claim forms to the GDE every month, indicating how many hours they have worked.
I was told that the GDE would process and authorise these claims at the end of every month and that payment would be effected as soon as possible after the end of every month.
This has not been the case.
Having worked for six months so far, I have only been paid for three months and have now not been paid for three months. The department claims that it does not have the necessary personnel to deal with claims by Abet educators in a timely fashion as previously promised. This results in educators being forced to ‘work for free” whilst their payments are ‘promised” to them.
The problem is that the department has now lost our claim forms repeatedly, lost our banking details, and argued that I am not on the department’s database despite having been paid for the first three months. The problem lies in gross inefficiency and incompetence in the department. Various other colleagues at my school have now not been paid for three months and have been forced into financial crisis.
We are continually promised that our claims will be processed, but again and again we are told ‘next week”. From a legal point of view we do not have many rights, as our contracts stipulate that payment will be effected after the end of every month at the ‘earliest convenience”.
How can the department treat educators like this? As night-school teachers not all of us have access to trade unions and cannot go on strike. However, the people dealing with our claim forms and salaries are paid at the end of every month and do not have to worry about money.
Attempts to resolve these issues have been fruitless. No one answers telephones, one person blames the next and the cycle of inefficiency continues.
The second problem is school fees.
Students are charged a nominal R100 per year for the Abet education initiative and this money goes to the department. However, at my school and at many others, students are being overcharged. Our students have been charged almost R300.
The extra money was supposed to be for teaching aides and resources such as photocopying.
As educators we have seen none of this money.
It has recently come to my attention that R5 000 of the money has been withdrawn from the school bank account by a top member of management. These students have been defrauded, just as the teachers have been. Money is disappearing and students and teachers are suffering. I have a feeling that the corruption runs much deeper than what we may expect.
The GDE has threatened educators with legal action if they contest any of this. The fact that we do not get paid means we cannot even try to defend ourselves legally.
I feel that these issues coupled with many more that have not been mentioned in this letter would produce a good investigation into the shady dealings of an education department promising the world but treating staff and students like dirt.
These problems are not only limited to my school. I have discovered that various other night schools throughout the province face similar problems.
Education should not be a process of lies, deceit and fraud. It should be about empowering learners for better social and economic living.