Johnathan Paoli
Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga has maintained that her department has steadily been improving services and was currently engaged in appointing teachers, despite claims to the contrary with over 31 000 vacancies at public schools across the country.
Minister Motshekga was replying to a parliamentary questions by Members of Parliament from the Democratic Alliance (DA) on Wednesday, who inquired about the lack of educators within public schools, the department’s plan to ensure the safety of learners and staff and the alleged increase in dropout rates across schools within the country.
Motshekga confirmed that the number of vacant teacher posts in the country’s state schools has increased by 28% in the past three years, from more than 24,000 in 2021 to more than 31,000 in 2024.
The Minister said KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape have the highest number of vacancies, but that the department was filling the posts in an ongoing process.
Motshekga said that the department has allowed schools to appoint temporary teachers in an attempt to speedily address the immediate crisis.
DA Shadow Deputy Basic Education Minister Marina Van Zyl said crime statistics indicated there were seven murders, 24 attempted murders and 252 cases of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm committed on educational premises between October and December last year.
The Minister said in reply, the national and provincial departments have continued to implement the National School Safety Framework (NSSF) as a guiding framework in addressing all forms of violent incidents in schools, including drug abuse.
“The NSSF empowers schools to identify and manage all safety threats, and establish school safety committees comprising stakeholders such as teachers, police officers, school governing body members and learner representative council members,” Motshekga said.
She said that her department was working hard to ensure that access control measures in schools were strengthened and awareness programmes on social ills by partner departments and civil society organisations were implemented.
Motshekga indicated that the department continued to implement the life skills and life orientation curriculum in classrooms, which was the main lever for preventing violence in schools among learners and highlighted the development of a protocol for management and reporting of sexual abuse and harassment.
“This protocol sets out an approach that enables educators and employees of the Department of Basic Education to identify, intervene, report and provide support to all learners who are abused or harassed in school,” the minister said.
The DA’s Shadow Minister of Education Baxolile Nodada inquired about measures the department had put in place to monitor and stop learners being held back and/or coerced to dropout, due to fears that their failure would influence the matric pass rate.
However, the minister denied the claim and said not only was there no such policy or action, but that the department’s analysis indicated that dropout rates had been steadily declining over the years.
Motshekga said during 2020 and 2021, school participation improved despite concerns about the potential impact of the pandemic-related disruptions on drop out rates.
“It is therefore difficult to answer a question about how the department responded to an increase in dropout when in fact there has been no increase in dropping out,” Motshekga concluded.
Many have questioned the department’s decision to appoint teacher’s assistants with no education background as temporary teachers, in light of the growing number of unemployed education graduates in the sector.
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