Cape Times reports that Grade R teachers from various schools in the Western Cape took to the streets of Cape Town on Tuesday over permanent employment issues.

The teachers, some of whom have been teaching in the foundation phase for many years, were joined by the Grade R Crisis Committee to hand over their memo of grievances to the provincial legislature. Committee chairperson, Somikazi Mtya said their first march had been in July, but there had been no response. Their next action would be determined by the Western Cape Education’s (WCED) response, Mtya said. Noting that about 95% of Grade R teachers were women, Mtya explained that it was important for them to use Women’s Day “to voice out our cries”. Mtya added: “Not one positive implementation (has taken place) in the last 10 years. We want a retirement fund for those teachers who retired after the promised permanency. We also want Grade R to be compulsory, as the CAPS document starts from Grade R.” Rashida Lewis has been a Grade R teacher for the past 13 years and remains hopeful that one day she will be permanently employed. Another teacher, Ruwayda Jones, who has been in the sector for nearly two decades said every year they left work in fear because they were on contracts. Education MEC David Maynier indicated: “Unfortunately, the national government does not consider Grade R to be a compulsory school year, and as such does not fund provincial governments to provide it. The practitioners are marching to the wrong sphere of government, they should be calling on the national government to provide the necessary funding for us to provide posts to Grade R teachers.”

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Okuhle Hlati at Cape Times

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