The government has set aside R500-million to attract and reward qualified teachers for working in schools where few want to go: remote, poor and harsh rural and urban areas.
Schools with a chronic shortage of educators in areas such as maths, science, information and communication technology and some languages could also benefit.
These “hardship incentives”, first mooted about five years ago, were gazetted last month with more details about the R500-million scheme, which could benefit up to 46 700 teaching posts. Implementation will depend on the nine provincial departments of education, but if they fail to act Minister of Education Naledi Pandor can step in to put the plan into action.
Firoz Patel, Deputy Director General of systems, planning and monitoring in the national department of education, says the incentive scheme aims to enable schools in rural and remote areas to attract suitably qualified teachers.
The scheme follows the department’s plan to introduce community service as a way for teacher-training bursary holders to repay their loans.
Principals in remote areas welcome the incentives scheme, saying they find it increasingly difficult to attract teachers to their schools. Staff are often desperate to find posts elsewhere, they say.
“We do struggle to get teachers because of our conditions. Young people in particular would rather migrate to urban areas,” says Miriam Khoza, principal of Sifundzekhaya Primary School, 40km outside Malelane in Mpumalanga.
Qualified teachers in both permanent and temporary posts could earn a minimum of R10 000 a month extra before tax. In addition, teachers could benefit from more than one type of incentive – for being in a remote post and for teaching an understaffed subject – which will push up the income.
Incentives could include free housing, subsidised vehicles, overseas study trips and study visits. The type and amount of incentives will be determined by provincial departments of education.
However, it is the capacity to administer the incentives and the restriction of the scheme to qualified teachers only that concern teachers’ unions.
Allen Thompson of the National Teachers’ Union (Natu) says most teachers in rural areas are unqualified and therefore excluded from the gazetted incentives package.
Natu’s stronghold is in Kwazulu-Natal, where the largest number of posts – 10 700 – are set to benefit. Yet this is also the province where more than half of all teachers are underqualified or unqualified.
“At least the department of education should be giving them (unqualified teachers) a chance to upgrade their qualifications by automatically qualifying for bursaries,” says Thompson.
Dave Balt of the National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa says his union’s biggest concern is that there is not enough expertise and capacity at district level to implement and manage the scheme properly. “The criteria in terms of who really qualifies are vague and this could be interpreted differently (by different teachers).”
Chris Klopper of the Suid-Afrikaanse Onderwyserunie says the issue of incentives should be treated as part of new salary packages being negotiated.
“It should not be dealt with piece-meal because the moment you present something like that it would create problems,” Klopper says.
Educationist Wally Morrow, who recently undertook a major study on the supply of teachers, says: “Something had to be done to encourage teachers to take posts in schools which find it very difficult to attract suitable staff – and this regulation is to be welcomed.”
Morrow said concerns included that the provincial education heads must designate these hardship posts, but the categories of schools were not clear-cut.
“There are degrees of ‘remoteness’ and degrees of ‘other’ schools (‘difficult urban zones’, ‘chronic shortage of educators in certain subjects/learning areas’). Thus it is likely
to be the case that surrounding
the schools in these two categories there will be a large number of schools on the margins of these categories.
“In the light of the fact that we are talking of remuneration, contestation is very much on the cards, with, unfortunately, the possibility of patronage, special favours for friends, and so forth.”
Morrow said the second source of contestation might arise from the argument that living expenses are likely to be higher in urban than rural areas. As a result teachers working in urban areas require or deserve a higher salary than those working in rural areas.
This is not a new thought – there was a time when teachers working in “inner” London in the United Kingdom were provided with a “London allowance” to top up their salary to compensate them for living in a more expensive region.