By Johnathan Paoli
A crisis is looming in the education sector in the North West as delays and errors in the release of Post Provisioning Measures (PPMs) threaten school governance, budgeting and resource allocation for 2025.
This prolonged failure, in violation of legal deadlines, has sparked widespread concern from educators, school governing bodies (SGBs) and unions like the Suid-Afrikaanse Onderwysersunie (SAOU).
SAOU executive officer Paul Sauer said current situation was affecting the over-all budgeting requirements needed to deliver quality education for next year.
“The situation is dire. The release of the PPM is nine weeks overdue. This means that the schools are not able to accurately plan for the 2025 school year in regard to the number of teaching staff that will be available which in turn drastically affects the number of learners that the school will be able to accommodate,” Sauer said.
PPMs are essential frameworks that determine the allocation of teaching posts to schools within a province. They consider various factors, including student enrolment, grade levels and special needs requirements. This is to ensure equitable and efficient distribution of teaching resources.
By law, the education MEC is required to finalise and communicate PPMs by 30 September each year.
The regulation detailed in Schedule A of the Regulations for the Creation of Educator Posts aims to give schools sufficient time to plan for the upcoming academic year.
Additionally, Section 58C(6) of the South African Schools Act (SASA) mandates that provincial departments determine and communicate the capacity of public schools by the same deadline.
SAOU provincial secretary Johan Kruger said that despite these clear legal obligations, the education department has failed to release accurate PPMs on time, with initial delays compounded by the release of incorrect PPMs in October, sparking confusion and concern among schools.
One glaring example of this mismanagement occurred in the Dr Kenneth Kaunda School District, where the final PPMs released on 21 October diverged significantly from earlier drafts.
Kruger said that some of the key errors included inconsistent weightings used to calculate teacher allocations being inexplicably increased; and several primary schools reporting that Grade R enrolments were omitted from calculations, reducing their post allocations.
Additionally, he maintains that schools catering to learners with special educational needs found discrepancies in weightings based on disability classifications, while some schools did not receive the additional posts promised in initial drafts.
Kruger said that school principals were placed in the difficult position of explaining sudden reductions in teaching posts to their staff, leading to low morale among educators and uncertainty about class sizes and workloads.
The provincial secretary said attempts to address the issue have yielded little progress, and that this lack of action has forced schools and SGBs into an untenable position.
When district managers were confronted with the discrepancies, they retracted the final PPMs but offered no viable solutions or accountability.
Governing bodies may have to independently allocate funds for additional educator posts to prevent overcrowded classrooms or compromised learning conditions, further straining already limited resources.
The SAOU has called for those responsible for these errors to be held accountable.
In a letter to MEC Viola Motsumi, HOD Maropeng Seshibe and other senior education officials, Kruger, expressed grave concern over the department’s inability to meet its statutory obligations.
“Imagine the position of a principal who must inform their staff that the school’s post provisioning has been cut. This creates a ripple effect of despondency among teaching staff, ultimately affecting the quality of education,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance’s education spokesperson CJ Steyl has urged the MEC to release accurate PPMs immediately.
The party also wants a detailed explanation of measures to prevent future occurrences and greater accountability, saying that education must be prioritised over administrative inefficiencies.
Steyl said the without swift intervention, the risk of long-term damage to the North West education system remained high, threatening the rights of learners to quality education and the stability of public schools in the province.
Inside Education attempted to reach out to the department concerning the matter, but there was no response at the time of publishing.
INSIDE EDUCATION
