Figures tabled by senior department officials during a briefing to members of Parliament’s basic education portfolio committee show the worst-affected region was Mpumalanga, where the number of vacancies rose from 3.32% to 14.48%.

The actual number of teacher vacancies in this province rose from 857 on January 12 this year, to 3738 on March 12.

Across all nine provinces, the total number of vacant posts rose from 10,846 on January 12, to 22,051 three months later (from 3.72 percent to 7.56 percent).

The highest vacancy rate was in the Eastern Cape (5107 vacancies on March 12); the lowest was in the Northern Cape, where vacancies dropped slightly over the quarter, from 654 to 628.

In Limpopo, the province that experienced a major textbook crisis, the total vacancies shot up form 190 in mid-January to 3197 in mid-March (from 0.44 to 7.40 percent).

According to basic education deputy director Devi Pillay, the percentages are calculated against what the department calls a post provisioning norm (PPN), which is “the number of teaching posts declared [in a particular province] by the [education] MEC”.

Earlier, Pillay briefed the committee on “teacher demand and supply” at public schools in South Africa.

“[A total of] 70.5% of schools had no vacancies in January 2012, [a figure] which decreased to 38% in March this year.” 

She said it was “not apparent” why the vacancy rate had suddenly increased, but warned there were problems with the department’s Persal (personnel and salary) system, from where the figures were derived.

Persal was “not correctly linked” to the department’s basic accounting system.

“The quality and accuracy of our Persal data is questionable,” Pillay said.

She said solving this problem would be a “mammoth task”, given the volume of historically inaccurate data contained in the 15-year-old system. The number of temporary teacher appointments had also risen.

According to the document: “Use of temporary appointments increased between January and March [this year] from eight to 12 percent.” 

Acting deputy director-general Themba Kojana told the committee the teacher “attrition rate” was 3.2% a year, involving 12,500 teachers.

Responding to a question, he said 43% of the teachers leaving the department were in the 30 to 39 year age group.

The department was not immediately able to say how many teachers were currently employed at public schools in each province.

The total of the posts declared (PPNs) in each of the nine provinces, as shown in the document tabled at the briefing, was 291,669.

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Sat May 25 07:38:24 SAST 2013 ::

Aug 21, 2012

kgabojl

I did teaching in 1998 and didnt finish my last year due to finance , then when i want to finish all the colleges were close , i want to work as a teacher but the governement is not doing enough by assisting us with the financial aid to fullfil our dream, if i can get a financial aid i will fininsh my teachers diploma or "degree" am willing to finish it
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Aug 21, 2012

skwamasamabele

10% increase in the number of vacancies for teachers?? this is corresponding with the low level of pass rate in the province. Surely there are students in Universities who are on teacher training courses?? why cant the Education Chief install an accreditation system, whereby student teachers work alongside retired teachers, and that can go towards the baccalaurette assessment?? sometimes I think I can run the country better than the nincampoops in government today
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Aug 22, 2012

JB$

How can they fill vacancies if they cant even deliver textbooks
*Shame*
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Sep 3, 2012

Maqhankqa

MPs heard today! For goodness sake they knew all along the mess in our education system. They must not pretend as if they didn't know. Why are their children in PRIVATE SCHOOLS IF THEY DIDN'T KNOW THE MESS IN OUR SCHOOLS?
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