Parents protest outside the Department of Education circuit office. Parents protest outside the Phumelele circuit office in uMlazi U-section over shortage of teachers at Dloko High School in uMlazi J-section. Picture: Bongani Mbatha: African News Agency (ANA)
Durban - The parents of the pupils attending Dloko High School in uMlazi J-section protested outside the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education’s Phumelela circuit office over the shortage of teachers in uMlazi U-section on Monday.
The parents said over 820 pupils are taught by just 14 teachers.
One parent, Gugu Gcabashe said about eight teachers left last year and they were not replaced.
Gcabashe said this was of concern to parents as their children are falling behind with the syllabus compared to neighbouring schools.
“It is difficult for teachers to teach so many pupils and some classes go unattended. In some cases, they come back home without even studying a single subject. This has been happening since June last year and we have been complaining about how badly it affects our children,” she said.
She added that the parents went to the Phumelela circuit office to hand over the memorandum with their demands.
The School Governing Body’s secretary, Blessing Mbonambi, said the Department of Education is letting them down as they have been writing and complaining about this.
“We are mainly complaining about the shortage of teachers in Dloko. We have 820 pupils compared to just 14 teachers. This cannot keep on happening, we demand change,” Mbonambi said.
Provincial Education spokesperson Muzi Mahlambi said the department is aware of this matter and it is being attended to.
“We received the report about the protest at one of our circuit offices which was in uMlazi. We have asked the district to intervene, and we are still waiting for the response as to why there is a shortage of teachers and why was the department not notified on time, instead we found out from the parents,” Mahlambi said.