Vacant teacher posts surge
• Angie Motshekga tells MPs there are 31,000 unfilled positions, up 28% in the past three years
The number of vacant teacher posts in SA’s state schools soared 28% in the past three years, from more than 24,000 in 2021 to more than 31,000 in 2024, basic education minister Angie Motshekga has told MPs.
Teacher shortages have a direct effect on class sizes, which in turn affect learning outcomes. More than half of SA’s primary schoolchildren were being taught in classes with more than 40 pupils in 2022, according to a study by the Research on Socioeconomic Policy unit at Stellenbosch University.
Responding to a written question from DA basic education spokesperson Baxolile Nodada, the minister said 31,462 teacher posts were unfilled, more than a fifth of these in KwaZulu-Natal. She told parliament in 2021 that 24,556 teacher posts stood empty.
She said positions were filled on a continuing basis and schools were allowed to make temporary appointments while recruitment processes were under way.
Her written reply shows there were 7,044 unfilled positions in KwaZulu-Natal, 6,111 in the Eastern Cape and 4,933 in Limpopo. Gauteng has 3,898 vacancies and the Western Cape has 4,497, while Mpumalanga and the North West have yet to fill 1,931 and 1,205 posts, respectively. The Free State needs to fill 1,117 posts and there are 726 vacancies in the Northern Cape.
Nodada said unfilled vacancies were just the tip of the iceberg as state schools lacked vital infrastructure.
“Pupils are forced to sit in unsafe classrooms, use pit latrines, as well as share furniture, textbooks and stationery.
“These lead to terrible educational outcomes for children, as 81% of grade 4 learners cannot read for meaning,” he said.
Provinces could not fill their teacher vacancies because their budgets had been slashed, he said, citing the DA-led Western Cape education department, the budget of which was cut by almost R900m by national government.
Western Cape education MEC David Maynier said the number of teacher vacancies was always a concern, and it fluctuated as teachers moved around the province, were promoted or left the system.
“Crucially, we want to make sure that we don’t have a classroom of learners without a teacher, and these critical vacant posts are temporarily filled with contract teachers until the post is filled permanently,” he said.
The government’s planned education reforms, set out in the Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill now before parliament, would only worse education outcomes, said Nodada.
CONTROL
The DA was opposed to the bill’s push to centralise control by giving the heads of provincial education departments the final say on school language and admission policies as well as authority over home schooling, he said. The party did not support the government’s plan to extend compulsory schooling to include grade R, as it had not been budgeted for.
The bill was passed by the National Assembly in October 2023 and is being deliberated on by MPs on the National Council of Province’s select committee on education and technology, sports, arts and culture.
On Wednesday, the committee was briefed by parliamentary legal adviser Phumelela Ngema, who assured MPs that decisions on how to fund grade R would be taken by the executive after the bill had been passed by parliament and signed into law by the president.
The DA’s Delmaine Christians said that the provision of grade R to all eligible children would cost each provincial education department an extra R2bn a year.
The department of basic education’s director for education management and governance development, James Ndlebe, said passing the bill should not hinge on whether grade R could be funded. Grade R was already offered by 70% of state schools and the bill sought to ensure parity for all children, he said.
As MPs began their line-byline deliberations on the bill, only the DA expressed opposition to clauses dealing with language and admission policies.
Trade union Solidarity said it was worried the bill would be rushed through parliament before the general election on May 29.
Solidarity objected to the bill’s proposals to transfer decision-making on language and admission policies from school governing bodies to government. While it was not opposed to making grade R compulsory, it was concerned about the lack of a plan to fund it.