Question no. 2099
Mr PF Smith (Inkatha Freedom Party) to ask the Minister of Basic Education:
Whether dedicated incentives are provided to suitably qualified teachers to improve the teaching of maths and science in the public school system; if not, why not; if so, what incentives?
Reply:
The Policy on Incentives for Educators was declared in December 2007 (Government notice no. 25, Gazette no. 30 678). The aim of the policy is attract and retain educators in areas of scarcity. The policy provides for four types of incentives, namely, posts in schools situated in remote geographical areas, posts in subject, learning areas and phases which are difficult to fill.
The policy identifies mathematics, science, information and communications technology (ICT) and some languages but also allows for provincial Education Departments to identify scarce subjects and learning areas in terms of their own needs, posts that are in schools situated in the difficult urban zones of the country or the so-called hard-to-teach schools and lastly, the policy also allows for incentives to attached to posts, based on the request from the principal and the school governing body (SGB) of the school after providing evidence that identified posts are difficult to fill.
To ensure quality, the policy prescribes that for an educator who occupies an incentive post to be eligible to receive payment, he or she must be fully qualified (REQV 13). It is, however, up to each provincial Education Department to identify its needs and prioritise the types of incentives it is going to pay accordingly. As the priorities could differ across provincial Education Departments, therefore it is possible that not all provincial Education Departments will prioritise the incentives for scarce subjects.
Source: Department of Education
