let us also focus on the teachers who stay up past midnight marking, who sacrifice weekends for extra lessons and who quietly absorb the stress so their learners don’t have to.
As South Africa gears up for matric finals, a crucial conversation needs to be highlighted. Our teachers are burnt out, fed up and half are desperate to leave the profession. With little support, they are being tested to breaking point and the consequences for learner outcomes are grave.
Decades of research show a clear link between teacher support, retention and learner success. Teachers who receive proper inductions and mentoring or coaching are happier and significantly less likely to leave the profession. Higher turnover, by contrast, drags down student outcomes across entire grade levels, not only in the classes that lose a teacher.
Yet, in South Africa, we barely scratch the surface of this conversation. Every September, our spotlight shifts, as it should, to matriculants preparing for their exams. Yet in obsessing over pass rates, we ignore the conditions under which teachers themselves are tested.
I work closely with newly qualified teachers across three provinces and I can tell you teachers are often more anxious than their learners at this time of year. Many take on the weight of every struggle and the fear of every failure.
Term four is most intense, especially for those teaching grades seven and 12. These teachers are setting preliminary papers, chasing moderation deadlines, finishing the syllabus, teaching extra classes on weekends and carrying home stacks of marking late into the night. Beyond just teaching content, though, they also shoulder a heavy emotional load, in some cases serving as therapist, motivator, social worker, disciplinarian and even surrogate parent.
That’s because the profession has, over the years, been care-washed, with teachers expected to serve with devotion but given little in return. As a result, the mental, physical and emotional toll is immense, but the sad reality is that unlike matriculants, there are no guidelines or rest days for teachers.
I have seen some teachers break down in sessions, simply because no one has asked them how they are doing. They come to school emotionally depleted and then face learners who come from homes marked by trauma, abuse, hunger and instability.
The deeper administrative and academic relief teachers so desperately need, including emotional scaffolding, is non-existent. Teacher assistants, where present, are rarely assigned to newly qualified teachers and, when they are, their role is limited to stapling papers and sorting files.
To put it bluntly, our teachers are tired of being treated like they must just push through, especially during high-pressure periods, and yet each and every year teachers are expected to give more and more.
Helping teachers to cope needs to be a priority
In my experience, guided sessions are one way of giving teachers a breather and the only structured place where they are seen as humans first. It provides perspective, emotional regulation tools and simple connection. Emotional intelligence is a core theme and these sessions help teachers centre this, not just in their classrooms, but also for themselves.
I’ve seen how support can make all the difference. Teachers who receive consistent guidance begin to see their challenges more clearly. They develop time-management strategies that free them from the spiral of overwhelm. They learn to collaborate with colleagues instead of carrying the load alone. And, most importantly, they begin to link their own well-being to learner outcomes. When the teacher is well, the learner thrives.
But here’s the hard truth. Guided sessions alone cannot fix a system that undervalues its teachers. We need a societal shift in how we see and support the profession. Parents, school leaders and policymakers need to understand that teachers are not superheroes. They are ordinary humans working under enormous pressure and they deserve the same compassion we extend to learners.
So, while we cheer on the 700 000-plus learners preparing to sit their final matric examinations next month, let us also focus on the teachers who stay up past midnight marking, who sacrifice weekends for extra lessons and who quietly absorb the stress so their learners don’t have to. This time is as much about them as it is about the matrics.
Londiwe Majola is a Jakes Gerwel Fellowship teacher coach.