Education dept blamed for high number of vacancies

The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) says though there is a shortage of maths teachers, the department is to blame for not advertising vacant posts as agreed.

Limpopo Education MEC Aaron Motsoaledi has acknowledged the acute shortage of maths and science educators. He says the department is left with no option but to seek these teachers from other countries.

Motsoaledi says according to department statistics, by the end of 2007 they had 1 600 vacancies for maths and 1 300 for science.

Department lashes out at DA
The Mpumalanga Education Department has meanwhile accused the provincial Democratic Alliance (DA) of seeking to create confusion by questioning the credibility of last year's matric results.

The DA in Mpumalanga requested Umalusi – the Council for Quality Assurance – to investigate the credibility of last year results. Apparently, the provincial Education Department released preliminary matric results full of discrepancies.

Some learners received results suggesting they had failed when they had actually passed. The DA claims the inconsistency had affected more than 600 learners throughout the province.