Teachers granted provisional council registration

ABOUT a third of new teachers entering the profession for the first time have been granted provisional registration by the South African Council of Educators (Sace) pending submission of police clearance certificates.

This comes as close to 3 000 new teachers applied when the submission became compulsory from last month.

This was revealed by Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga in a written response to a parliamentary question from DA MP Sonja Boshoff.

The department has been under pressure to ensure that the vetting of teachers by Sace incorporates clearance certificates from the SAPS, National Child Protection Register and National Register of Sexual Offences from last month.

It was, however, decided that police clearance certificates be a requirement starting last month.

In her parliamentary question, Boshoff wanted to know the number of newly qualified teachers who had applied for Sace registration and produced SAPS-issued clearance certificates.

She also wanted to know the number of appointed teachers in each province for the 2019 academic year without the specified clearance certificate.

Boshoff also asked whether teachers would be required to update their clearance certificates on a regular basis or if the certificate was only required during the registration.

Motshekga said 2 983 teachers had applied and updated their registration status from January 1 when the requirement for the police clearance came into effect.

She said 2 981 had been granted registration and two were not because of criminal records.

Motshekga also said 1 854 teachers had produced the SAPS clearance certificates.

A total of 1 127 were registered provisionally until June 30 pending proof of application for the police clearance certificates.