With no English teacher, parents fear children will fail matric
Eastern Cape school has only two teachers to teach seven subjects to five grades of students
Parents at Sotinini High School in Peddie, Eastern Cape, fear that their children will fail grade 12 as there is no English teacher and students cannot pass matric without passing English.
The school had four teachers but the English teacher went on pension earlier this year and another teacher passed away last year. The remaining two teachers and the principal have to teach all seven subjects for grade eight to grade 12.
Parents say they have sent a number of letters to the education department. The department promised to send officials to meet with parents, but the official cancelled at the last minute. Since then, there has not been any communication. Parents continue to send letters to the department’s office in King William’s Town, but have had no response, they say.
Spokesperson for the Eastern Cape Department of Education Malibongwe Mtima said, “The school has fewer than 90 learners, meaning two teachers are enough, because we allocate one teacher for 30 learners.”
But the chairperson of the school’s governing body, Collen Mahlakahlaka, said with no English teacher the school risks getting a 0% matric pass rate. This comes after years of struggling to improve, with the pass rate climbing from just 23% in 2015 to 43% in 2016.
This article has been changed to correct the spelling of the school.
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Letters
Dear Editor
Anyone can look up that DPE's mission and other statements they lay claim to uphold and display on the internet. Reading the spokemen's reasoning, sadly the scholars, their parents, their two teachers and their principles plea for assistance for an English teacher is being ignored because of narrow minded reasoning that was not related to them in person.
The department has certainly not dispayed accountability, not improving quality and sorely lacking the claim of excellence in maintaining high standards in everything they do.. lacking fairness, ethical and trustworthy practice's for both pupils of many grades and skeleton staff.
This urgently needs intervention, with formost the best interests of all concerned at this school who are trying their utmost to attain their own mission. Success, ambition and hope for their future.
Dear Editor
On the assumption that 6 subject are required to be written in the final exams, then the minimum number of teachers at this school would be 6 teachers, and depending on how you do your counting it could also be 12 teachers.
According to the department they allocate a teacher for every 30 students, that means that if there are less than 30 students, there are no teachers.
To make the example simpler, lets assume that this is a high school, that is grades 9 to 12 and that there are 32 students, that is 8 students in each grade, and there are 6 subjects to be taught, that means that one teacher has to teach in 24 different classes each day.
The Eastern Cape has the worst educational outcomes.
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