The Institute of Risk Management of South Africa report has warned of looming teacher shortages in the next ten years; The National Executive Committee (NEC) has had deliberations about the matter.
This is not the first report to indicate that this is what the Education Sector is facing currently, as some of the initial reports alluded that this is due to the current teachers in the sector becoming of age and eventually needing to be replace as soon as possible.
In a statement, the South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) pointed out:
The facts are that South Africa has more teachers who are unemployed.
The union has assured people that there is no threat at this point in time to panic, also labeling the Institute’s report as being nothing other than alarmist.
However, SADTU said the department needs more money to employ the excess teachers who are currently not employed.
Jakes Gerwel Fellowship CEO, Julian Hewitt has also shared that at the moment, the country is producing 6,000 teachers every year and by the year 2030, there will be about 50,000 teachers that will be added to sustain the current teachers.
According to the union, what is needed is to deploy teachers into areas of their specialty. The Department of Basic Education (DBE) spokesperson ,Elijah Mhlanga has also clarified that the shortage is only in specific areas of teaching, including Mathematics, Science, Technology and African languages.
Mhlanga also added that there is an oversupply of teachers in other areas of learning. It is for this reason that the Funza Lushaka bursary helps prospective teaching students in terms of funding their Bachelor of Education and Postgraduate Certificate in Education in Senior Phase and FET teaching qualifications.
Through this bursary, the future teachers are placed in national priority subject areas such as South African Indigenous Languages and STEM subjects from the Foundation Phase to the FET Phase.
It has been reported that the Higher Education department is now working hand-in-hand with Basic Education in ensuring that the teaching offered at higher education institutions meets the demand in these areas.
