{"id":821566,"date":"2025-04-27T13:03:38","date_gmt":"2025-04-27T11:03:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=821566"},"modified":"2025-04-27T13:03:45","modified_gmt":"2025-04-27T11:03:45","slug":"50-of-south-african-teachers-want-to-leave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/821566\/50-of-south-african-teachers-want-to-leave\/","title":{"rendered":"50% of South African teachers want to leave"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Half of the in-service teachers in South Africa want to leave the profession due to stress and being overworked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was revealed in a recent study<\/a><\/strong> published by the Teacher Demographic Dividend (TDD) project in partnership with the Research on Socio-Economic Policy unit (Resep) at Stellenbosch University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report presents the findings of a teacher survey, completed by 1,500 respondents across all school levels, to investigate job satisfaction and teacher preferences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report noted that 50% of teachers desired to leave the profession within the next ten years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

8% are considering leaving within the next year, while the percentages are evenly split between those wanting to go within the next two to five years (22%) and six to ten years (20%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report showed that teachers in no-fee schools are more inclined to leave than those at mid- to high-fee schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is because teachers in these schools said that learner poverty, socio-emotional, and behavioural problems are significant challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These issues further pressure their ability to deliver the curriculum effectively and, therefore, their job satisfaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being overworked was the main reason for wanting to leave the profession, pointing to the high workload, including a high administrative burden, experienced by teachers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teachers in mid-fee and high-fee schools were much more likely to cite being overworked as a reason for wanting to leave the profession, at 49% and 53%, respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is compared to 33% in low-fee schools and 25% in no-fee schools, who cited being overworked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teachers in high-fee schools were also much more likely to cite not earning enough as a reason for wanting to leave the profession (47%) than teachers in rural areas (28%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, despite the alarming results, the report noted that this high proportion of teachers wanting to leave is unlikely to materialise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is due to multiple reasons, such as job market constraints and the lack of other options available to teachers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite this, it added that the desire to leave the profession is likely to indicate generally low levels of job satisfaction that the government needs to address. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report highlighted several policy recommendations that could help promote educational job satisfaction while addressing different schools’ specific issues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of these include incentives to move to rural schools, such as subsidised accommodation and school fees for their own children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another is lessening teachers’ administrative burden by limiting their administrative responsibilities to only those crucial for effective school management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report also advised offering mental health support for teachers and learners, and offering additional training in practical remedial teaching strategies to support learners with major learning backlogs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Education under pressure<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

During this Budget presentation in March 2025, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana allocated R508.7 billion to the learning and culture sector and R332 billion for basic education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Godongwana said that the \u201clearner-teacher ratio remains higher than we would like, meaning that we still need more teachers in classrooms\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo prevent compensation of employees from crowding out other equally important areas of spending, R19.1 billion is added over the medium term to keep approximately 11,000  teachers in the classrooms.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other sector allocations include R27.9 billion for the skills development levy, R21.6 billion for education administration, and R14.2 billion for technical and vocational education and training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While stakeholders in the education sector welcomed the allocations, some believe this funding remains insufficient to address the critical challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The South African Democratic Teachers\u2019 Union (SADTU) has pointed out that the budget will not be enough to hire unemployed teacher graduates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The funding will also not be enough to support the newly integrated Grade R educators, as Grade R is now a compulsory school starting age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a more positive note, Bianca B\u00f6hmer, a researcher from Stellenbosch University, told eNCA that there has been a notable rise in the number of trained teachers in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said that the significant improvements in the numbers will reduce the impact of the expected high teacher attrition rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She highlighted that approximately 9,000 graduates were training to be teachers across the country in 2010, but this has increased to about 30,000 in 2024. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said that the number of teachers in South Africa is no longer the main concern. However, skills mismatches and resources remain a concern.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A recent survey revealed the alarming number of teachers in South Africa who want to leave the profession.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":797087,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[7472,22357,853,6896],"class_list":["post-821566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-enca","tag-he-teacher-demographic-dividend-tdd-project","tag-south-africa","tag-stellenbosch-university"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=821566"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":821698,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821566\/revisions\/821698"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/797087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}