Nxasana, who is retiring as chief executive at the end of September, will in future focus more energy on the National Education Collaboration Trust (NECT), which he chairs. The NECT aims to strengthen partnerships between business, civil society, government and labour to support the education goals of the National Development Plan.
He told delegates at the debate on improving maths performance: “We have a vision to increase the number of pupils with a bachelor’s pass to 90% by 2030. This is a huge challenge, particularly when you look at the maths, science and language results.” He noted that of around 13 million children in school, private schools cater for only around one million. “So it is crucial that we sort out education. It requires dialogue and action,” he said.
Nxasana said it was encouraging that the government was looking to address problems in schools’ infrastructure, management and teacher resources, but he said that it was a “significant challenge” at a time when four of the country’s provinces spend virtually their entire education budgets on salaries alone. The department of basic education now “has a better understanding of its existing resources and can look to manage more effectively in future”, he said. However, “South Africa is good at making plans, but every effort has to be made to develop the state’s capacity to deliver,” said Nxasana.
He warned that South Africa could “hit a brick wall in future” if enough qualified maths teachers did not enter the system. He pointed to the Centre for Development and Enterprise’s teacher supply and demand report released last week, which indicates that while South Africa will be able to produce sufficient teachers overall to meet the needs of schools in the next 10 years, teacher supply is predicted to be mismatched to student needs by phase and subjects. Shortfalls are expected in foundation phase, and in the subjects of languages and maths.
Through NECT, Nxasana said, a platform had been created to support the sharing of knowledge, experience and best practice, with a view to addressing these challenges and improving the quality of education.
Teacher supply and demand in the spotlight
The Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE) Teachers In South Africa: Supply and Demand 2013–2025 report, released last week, found that:
• Pupil enrolments are expected to rise from 12.4 million in 2013 to 13.4 million in 2023, after which they will decrease to 13.3 million in 2025.
• To meet the increased pupil enrolment, the teaching force will need to expand from about 426 000 in 2013 to about 456 000 in 2025, an increase of approximately 30 000 teachers over 12 years.
• The enrolment plan of the department of higher education and training (DHET) is well on track, and projections show that if the number of graduates continues to increase, South Africa will be able to produce sufficient teachers for the next decade to maintain the current pupil to educator ratio of 29.2 pupils to one teacher for the whole system.
• However, by 2025 some 3% fewer teachers will be needed in the lower primary section, 13% more in the upper primary, and 10% more in the secondary school sector. The DHET’s current enrolment plan does not take this uneven demand into account.
• While there is an oversupply of teachers for some subjects there are significant shortages in key subjects: languages in all phases, mathematics in the intermediate and senior phases, and mathematical literacy in the further education and training phase.
The CDE used data on 400 756 teachers, who were South African citizens between the ages of 22 and 65, to profile the South African teaching force in 2013. It found:
• High teacher turnover, with more qualified teachers leaving the profession than returning;
• 81% of teachers are qualified: 66% had an M+3 (Matric + three year tertiary) qualification and 15% had an M+4 qualification;
• 19% of teachers are unqualified: Some 10% of teachers had the equivalent of an M+3 qualification but no professional teaching qualification, and about another 10% had an M+2 or lower qualification; and
• Most teachers were aged 40 to 49 years.