South Africa’s public schools hit by massive teacher exodus

More than 32,000 teachers have left South Africa’s public schooling system over the past five years, 96% of whom were resignations.

This was revealed in a written reply from Minister of Basic Education Siviwe Gwarube to Build One South Africa (BOSA) Member of Parliament (MP) Mmusi Maimane.

Gwarube stated that 32,237 teachers have left the country’s public schooling system, with 30,992 of these being resignations and 1,245 dismissals.

BOSA states that Gwarube cited retirement eligibility, career changes, migration to other sectors or countries, and overwhelming workload pressures as factors influencing resignations.

As for the dismissals, these stem from disciplinary action taken under the Employment of Educators Act.

“These numbers confirm the extent of the teacher shortage, which parents, teachers, and learners experience daily. Classrooms are overcrowded, and our teachers are overworked and underpaid,” said BOSA spokesperson Roger Solomons.

“Burnout, lack of professional support, and deteriorating working conditions are pushing educators out of the system faster than they can be replaced.”

The party pointed out that because of this exodus, 50% of South Africa’s primary school learners are taught in classes of over 40, and 15% in classes larger than 50.

According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), countries like Colombia and the United Kingdom tend to be on the higher end of the spectrum, with an average of 40 and 33 learners per teacher, respectively, for pre-primary education.

Ireland and New Zealand tend to have far fewer learners per teacher, with both countries having an average of fewer than five.

When it comes to secondary education, South Africa has one of the highest learner-to-teacher ratios in the world, with an average of over 30 across both public and private education systems.

This is significantly more than India, Colombia, and Brazil, which each have an average of between 20 and 25 learners per teacher.

Despite this issue, BOSA points out that the Department’s National Recruitment Database lists more than 12,700 qualified educators actively seeking employment.

“It is completely unacceptable that trained teachers are sitting at home while learners are crowded into overstretched classrooms,” BOSA said.

Therefore, the party has called on Gwarube to table a teacher deployment and absorption plan to employ all qualified educators on the national database before Parliament.

It has also demanded that the minister table a teacher retention strategy to address burnout, poor working conditions, and salary disparities driving skilled teachers out of the profession.

Thousands of vacant positions

It was revealed earlier this year that there are roughly 29,000 vacant teaching positions in the public schooling sector.

The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union’s spokesperson, Nomusa Cembi, told Newzroom Afrika that the organisation had raised the issue several times with the DBE, but to no avail.

“We are concerned by these unfilled posts because it is resulting in overcrowding in classrooms, teachers burning out, and ultimately affecting the quality of education provided by teachers,” she said.

Cembi added that the government is not employing support staff in schools, which further adds to the pressure placed on teachers, who are burdened with additional administrative work to compensate for this.

As a result of South Africa’s failure to employ teaching graduates, many are being forced to seek employment overseas.

One qualified educator from KZN who had been unemployed for four years told IOL that they were considering moving abroad to pursue their passion for teaching.

The Inkatha Freedom Party revealed in 2024 that there were 25,566 unemployed teacher graduates in KwaZulu-Natal at the time.

While there were only 3,720 vacant teacher posts, these positions remained unfilled despite the availability of educators.