Does the government still honour its 1994 commitment to Education for All as contained in the Constitution, in the midst of the uproar over teaching vacancies?
Education For All is an international movement founded in 1990 to ensure that each child, youth and adult has access to quality equal basic education irrespective of their background. With the establishment of democracy 31 years ago, South Africa accepted this principle and included it in its Constitution and educational guidelines.
Thus, it does not make sense that 31,811 permanent teacher and school principal posts in the country are currently vacant. This represents nearly 10% of the total teacher corps.
I find it difficult to understand why the Department of Basic Education is not serious about filling these posts. I admit that this situation is mostly the legacy of former minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga, but the Government of National Unity must utilise this opportunity to fix education.
The situation is exacerbated because another 2,021 teachers and principals will retire at the end of the year. It is good that the department plans to fill the posts with young teachers who have just qualified, but the lack of experience and leadership leaves a vacuum that cannot be easily filled.
Leadership
The vacancies include about 500 management positions including 256 department heads, 99 deputy heads and 157 school principals. With so many leadership posts vacant, it is no wonder that so many of our schools lack leadership.
The abovementioned leadership figures form the school management team who in their turn must cooperate with the school governing body to draw up budgets, do future planning, launch fundraisers, appoint staff and supply general guidance and direction.
As a former principal I cannot imagine how a school can function without leaders. This has a crippling effect on the entire education system, and deserves a closer look
Impact on the school
A school with so many vacancies places an impossible burden on the shoulders of the remaining teachers. The classes are bigger and discipline suffers; fewer teachers must now take over the responsibilities.
This includes extra and larger classes, more marking, sport and culture. This leads to burnout and greater teacher absenteeism because many teachers struggle with stress-related illnesses.
No wonder that a recent report indicated that large numbers of young teachers do not want to continue their careers in education. Many young people leave South Africa to teach abroad where the conditions of education are more favourable.
Schools struggle more and more to recruit and retain teachers, especially in rural areas and townships where governing bodies do not offer additional remuneration. These schools are then forced to use a “first come, first served” option. The best teachers avoid these schools, and sometimes unqualified teachers are appointed. The accompanying poor teaching leads to poorer results that adversely affect learners’ futures.
Impact on learners
Teacher shortages and vacancies have a demoralising effect on learners. It creates an unstable learning environment that has a negative effect on learners’ general educational development.
South Africa already experiences a high dropout rate; as many as 40% of all learners entering the system in Grade 1 never reach matric. With so many educators and principals outside the system, the dropout rate increases further, especially in quintile 1 and 2 schools where the governing body does not have the funds to fill the gaps.
Where vacancies are not filled, the specialist subjects are the first to be abolished because the principals want to ensure that most children are helped. So, for instance, I have learned with dismay that the school where I passed matric with mathematics has now dropped maths as a subject! This will negatively affect learners’ opportunities for further studies.
Overcrowded classrooms
Above I referred to big classes. I have written many pages about this. According to the general secretary of the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu), Dr Mugwena Maluleke, educators are forced to teach in overcrowded classrooms because vacancies are not filled.
Recent reports referred to a school in Gauteng where there were 92 learners in one class; the Public Protector found a school in the Eastern Cape with more than 100 learners in a class; and I visited a school in the Eastern Cape where there were 132 learners crammed into one classroom.
You don’t need to be an education expert to realise that the vacancies that lead to overcrowded classes place further pressure on already overworked teachers.
Overcrowded classes also have adverse effects on learners because this curtails their academic progress. The noise is deafening! The accompanying individual attention from the teacher is lacking, which in turn leads to motivation problems. Learners miss out on the constructive child-teacher relationship, which detrimentally affects their socioemotional growth.
Sadtu march
Overcrowded classes is one of the reasons Sadtu cited for its mass march to the National Treasury and the Department of Basic Education on 23 April 2025. Besides that, the march was also to protest against austerity measures that according to Sadtu will undermine service delivery in education.
Sadtu alleges that schools struggle with late and insufficient funding for basic services. In many cases principals are forced to pay for essential expenses from their own pockets. At the same school in the Eastern Cape where I was, there was no electricity or phone service and the principal had to discuss school business on her cellphone.
Recent research has revealed a growing learner-teacher ratio; a shortage of classrooms and toilets, poor infrastructure such as laboratories, school halls and libraries; no provision is made for substitute teachers; Grade R teachers are underpaid; an unreliable school transport system; and deteriorating education environments with safety issues increasing daily.
Maluleke also argues that teachers’ wellbeing is not a priority for the department.
I am on record that I am in principle opposed to any disruption of the school programme, but how long can the legitimate pleas from teachers who keep the education project going be ignored? Filling the 31,000 vacancies is therefore of cardinal importance.
Posts for sale?
So why can the posts not be filled? Paul Sauer, the chief executive of the Suid-Afrikaanse Onderwysersunie, places the blame squarely on the shoulders of the provincial education departments. He accuses them of wilfulness because in the end it is their responsibility to fill the posts. For example, it took the Western Cape 18 months to fill a principal post.
Dr Jaco Deacon, the chief executive of Fedsas, also blames the education departments and accuses them of an abuse of power that contributes to the crisis in education.
The procrastination in the filling of the vacancies has once again raised questions about the possible sale of teacher and principal posts. True or not, this leaves us with more questions than answers about the delays in filling education posts.
Light like candles
Teachers are the backbone of every education system. Their influence extends far beyond the classroom. They not only transfer knowledge, they promote critical thinking and act as parents to millions of children. In short: teachers carry the development of a nation.
Thus, it comes as a shock to me and many others too, I am sure, (who as a student at the University of the Western Cape was beaten up by the security police until I was unconscious because I fought for this democracy), to see how the right to education is withheld from millions of children. Every child has the right to have a teacher every day that can inspire him or her to seize the future.
A wise man once said: teachers are like candles, they apply themselves to create light for others. That is why they deserve better than is currently the case. DM