Daily News reports that thousands of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Grade R teachers who claimed they were being short-changed by the education department had their salaries bumped up by R500 a month on Sunday night in a last-ditch effort to prevent them walking out of classrooms.  

This means that many of the 6,000 Grade R teachers received up to R4,500 in their bank accounts at midnight after the department back-paid them for up to nine months.  Grade R teachers in KZN will now receive a minimum monthly salary of R6,000.  This follows years of negotiations between the province and the National Teachers Union (Natu), which has been demanding that Grade R teachers be paid salaries on par with teachers in other provinces.  Natu believes much more needs to be done to improve benefits and a follow-up meeting is scheduled for Tuesday.

• Read this report by Sne Masuku in full at Daily News

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