When Silindokuhle Nyembe presented her KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education-issued appointment letter to a principal of a school in Port Shepstone, to which the department deployed her to teach, the principal told her that she looked too young to teach grades 8 to 12 learners.    

He also told her that her academic qualifications do not meet the criteria for teaching in his school.

As a result, six months after the department had appointed her as a permanent English teacher, Nyembe is still unemployed and struggling to make ends meet. 

Following the publication of the plights of three teachers, whose appointments by the department were also rejected by their respective schools, Nyembe, who obtained her teaching qualifications from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), and several others came out to express their disappointment.

“I am in contact with 12 other people whose placement by the department was rejected by principals,” she said. 

Nyembe said while she was sitting idle at her home in Jozini, northern KwaZulu-Natal, nursing pains of her unsuccessful struggle of securing teaching job, her luck came in August when she received a call from the Department to go to its offices on the south coast to collect her appointment letter. 

“It was the most exciting moment of my life knowing that I would now be the permanent teacher for the first time,” she said. 

She said she was even more excited that she would be teaching English to senior learners.

However, on arrival at a school, all her celebration came crashing down, and she lost hope for the bright future.

“The principal looked at my appointment letter and said I cannot teach in his school because he needed a Level Three English teacher whereas I was a Level One,” she said.

She said this left her confused, as she thought the department would not have deployed her to the school without knowing whether or not she was suitable.

She said the principal also raised concerns about the younger look before sending her off.  

“The principal said I looked very young to teach the grades I was supposed to teach, apparently referring to the fact that I am of short height,” she said.

She said she was confused because she had more than two years of experience teaching English temporarily to senior classes as a School Governing Body (SGB) teacher in Mkhanyakude District Municipality, where she taught for two years, and in Johannesburg, where she taught for two months.

“I am an experienced English teacher and have no doubt that I am good at it,” she said. 

Bongani Mbatha, 28, a graduate of UKZN, is also disappointed after being rejected by the principal of the school to which he was deployed.

Mbatha, from Nkandla, said when he reported to a Durban-based multi-racial school, with an appointment letter he obtained to teach Maths on August 18, the principal rejected him on the basis that he did not meeting requirement of teaching Maths from grades 8 to 12.

“He also said his school needs a teacher whose home language is English and said I did not qualify because I did English in a rural school,” he said. 

Andile Cebekhulu, 33, expressed concern that she was getting old without getting a job. 

The University of Zululand graduate received a call from the department on September 5 to collect her appointment letter and proceed to report for duty at a school in Ndwedwe, north of Durban. 

“I was going to teach English at the school, but the principal said he did not know anything about my deployment to his school. 

“He said the district keeps sending him people, whereas he already has placements.

“He phoned the district office and then told me that the district would find me another school,” Cebekhulu said. 

All the teachers said they had visited various education officers and also sent emails looking for help, but nothing has come up. 

Education spokesperson Mlu Mtshali said this week that he would refer the matter to the department for investigation. 

He said the schools were not allowed to reject teachers who had been posted by the Department.

“Maybe I have to go to HR (Human Resources) to get the response to that,” said Mtshali.

Mtshali is yet to give an update on what the department is doing about the matter. 

National Teachers’ Union (NATU) spokesperson Mathemba Mabija said the department was also responsible for centralising the employment of first-time appointees, which he said was isolating SGBs.

“SGBs cannot reject people who have been appointed by the department, but they may argue that they need to recommend through legitimate processes, including conducting interviews,” said Mabija. 

bongani.hans@inl.co.za

Source link