Funding of wannabe teachers leads to glut

Uncertainty looms over students studying towards education qualifications, as experts predict a surplus of 81 725 qualified teachers by 2020.

Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga yesterday said the amount of trained teachers was a result of a growing number of students benefiting from the department’s bursary scheme.

But she stressed the department had no desire to take its foot off the funding accelerator.

The scheme annually funds about 13 000 students studying towards teaching degrees.

Walter Sisulu University student Vuyisa Ngesi said it was worrisome to the future teachers that there were a high chance of them not getting employment.

“I am worried by the experts predicting an awful future for me. The analysis holds true as unemployed graduates is a reality in this country.”

Ngesi said it was even more difficult for students not funded by the bursary scheme, Fundza Lushaka, to find employment, as the education system first employs funded students before placing the remaining graduates.

The department’s spokesperson, Elijah Mhlanga, was not available for comment on its employment processes.

Nobuhle Mbashe, a qualified teacher, said the analysis was difficult for graduates. She viewed herself as lucky – she was employed within two years following her graduation.

“I graduated in 2015 and found a job in 2017. My story was not the reality of many graduates”.

An education expert, Walter Sisulu University lecturer Professor Quatro Mgogo, cautioned the department not to continue funding students for professions that had no job opportunities.

It would simply be a waste of resources and was based on past shortages, he said.

“One thing that the government hasn’t mastered, is measuring and calculating an approximate number of teachers needed to cover the shortage.

“The funding of teachers was a past problem and now it has led to overfeeding SA with a single previously scarce skill,” Mgogo said.

“Students end up not finding the placements/jobs. Indirectly the department is setting students up for failure.”