Dr J C Kloppers-Lourens (DA) to ask the Minister of Basic Education:
(1) Whether she has found that there is a shortage of educators; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, how will she deal with such shortage;
(2) Whether she will make a statement in this regard?
Reply:
(1) Our analysis of available research reveals that the existing shortage is not in overall quantity but in the quality and distribution of educators. The shortage is mainly in certain subject areas and in rural and remote schools. Hence the strategy of the department has been two-pronged. Firstly, improving the ability of the system to recruit and retain educators by improving the conditions of service for educators. Since the introduction of the Occupation Specific Dispensation (OSD) in 2008, conditions of service for educators were largely improved particularly in monetary terms.
On average the income of educators has improved by 38 percent during this period. Also, other elements such as career pathing opportunities for classroom-based educators were addressed to ensure that they grow both in terms of job enrichment and compensation without them having to take up managerial positions. Other retention strategies include the provision of teacher incentives targeting the scarcity areas and the Teacher Laptop Initiative aimed at improving the working conditions for educators. These are incentives for teachers teaching in rural/remote areas, subject/learning area specific incentives and hard-to-teach areas.
Secondly, most importantly recruitment has also been extended to ensure the supply of new teachers into the system. Through the Funza Lushaka bursary scheme the department is contributing directly to the supply of teachers. For example in the 2008/09 financial year about 9200 teacher education students at all 23 higher education institutions were funded through the Funza Lushaka bursary scheme. The bursaries focus on shortage subjects/learning areas/phases such as mathematics, science, languages and foundation phase teaching.
(2) The challenges are being addressed both by improving the retention and the supply of educators in identified areas of shortage. At this stage there is no necessity for a statement to be made.
Source: Department of Education
