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The Democratic Alliance in the North West will today write to Education MEC, Sello Lehari, requesting an immediate lifting of his unconscionable prohibition on the appointment of foreign teachers in the North West.

The DA has learned that the MEC’s prohibition on foreign teachers has left classes in the North West without teachers. We can especially not afford to lose teaching time in our Maths and Science classes.

This act of xenophobia by the MEC will leave our learners further from quality education, and directly compromises their chances in life.

There is no doubt that the MEC is buckling to the influence of SADTU, a Union hell-bent on capturing the education system, who want to see foreign teachers kept out of teaching posts.

Many foreign teachers, who bring special skills to our country, had returned to the 2017 academic year after school holidays with the expectation that their contracts would be renewed only to find that the schools they were teaching in were not allowed to hire them back.

The DA calls on MEC Lehari to immediately lift this xenophobic ban on foreigners, and to urgently hire teachers in schools which are currently without teachers.

I will also request that MEC Lehari makes a statement to the North West Legislature on how many classes are still without teachers, weeks into the 2017 school year.

Issued by DA North West