The Department of Education in the province of KwaZulu-Natal is the biggest education department in the country and the biggest department in the province in terms of the number of schools, learners and budget.
The department has employed more than 100 000 officials of which 88 500 of them are educators. When the MEC for Education in KwaZulu-Natal Senzo Mchunu came into the office in 2009, he declared that, "A classroom is a centerpiece of everything we do." This mantra meant that all the activities and programmes of the department are going to be about improving the quality of education given in a classroom. The MEC has also stressed that a school is as good as its management corps and no school should be without a teacher and complete management team.
The department has recently issued a bulletin, advertising 894 school based promotion vacancies. Out of 894 vacancies 225 are of school principals, 300 of Deputy Principals and the rest are of the Heads of Departments. With the aim of ensuring that there is no gap between the period of resignation and appointments, within these posts, there are those of the officials who are currently in the system, but are soon to retire.
"We are doing this so that on the last day the official leaves work, there is somebody to start working even on the same day, this applies even to office based officials," said the Head of Department, Dr. Nkosinathi Sishi.
