MMUSI MAIMANE | Teacher shortage creating a reading, classroom crisis

Yesterday marked World Teachers’ Day, an annual global event to honour and acknowledge those who perform the valiant task of educating the next generation in classrooms across the world.

The theme for 2023, as declaredby the United Nations, is “The teachers we need for the education we want: The global imperative to reverse the teacher shortage”. This theme resonates within public education in SA.

We face a critical shortage of teachers, demonstrated by our overcrowded classrooms juggled by overworked and underpaid teachers. Recent statistics show that over 50% of SA’s primary school pupils are in classes with more than 40 pupils.

It’s nothing short of a scandal that in a country where our children are subjected to such conditions, there are 21,155 unemployed teachers registered on the recruitment database of qualified SA educators.

This while the minister of basic education, Angie Motshekga, has publicly stated that there are 24,000 vacant teacher posts in SA. We have a reading crisis in our public schools. The latest Proficiency in Reading and Literacy Survey revealed we have regressed as a nation, with only 19% of our grade 4s who can read for meaning at the lowest level of comprehension.

On a high level reading benchmark, only 3% of SA pupils achieved this while the global median was 36% . At the intermediate level only 9% made this while the global median was 75%.

This grave discrepancy should worry all South Africans. Motshekga needs to urgently craft a plan of action that places unemployed teachers back in the classroom and, where necessary, to provide training and upskilling for unemployed teachers to match them with employment opportunities where possible.

We need to increase teachers’ salaries and benefits, making the profession more attractive to talented young people. It is well known that we have a shortage of teachers in the Stem-related subjects. Making the space more competitive will allow us to retire underperforming teachers and to introduce new performance indicators that have failed previously.

It will also motivate those teachers who have been over-performing to keep doing excellent work. If we can attract top talent into the public schooling system and improve the overall pass rate, the effects on the economy more broadly will be exponential.

We will be able to finally address the skills shortage in critical sectors and attract foreign direct investment focused on the 4IR economy. In addition, I will pursue four further innovative policies toimprove education and fosterexcellence in our young people.Firstly, the implementation of a student performance grant for the critical Stem subjects.

Secondly, a school voucher programme that returns the power back to the pupil’s parents to decide which school a child attends. Thirdly, a model that will see struggling public schools converted to collaboration schools with private financial assistance.

Fourthly, an independent education ombudsman to adjudicate school standards, teacher excellence and complaints. In educating our society, the paramount goal must be to prepare young people to become upright citizens who add value tothe market place and can play their part in contributing to the economic and social needs of SA.

■ Maimane is Bosa leader