Briefing by the DBE on progress reports in respect to the teacher vacancies

1. Briefing by the DBE on progress reports in respect to the teacher vacancies Portfolio committee – 28 May 2013

2. Content • Education Human Resource Planning Framework – purpose and objective; • Trends in Education; and • Process for filling of posts.

3. Education Human Resource Planning Framework • The purpose of the Framework is to guide the development and management of policy for the provisioning, utilisation and employment conditions of teachers and support staff. It aims to guide efforts to provide the right quality and quantity of teachers and support staff, with the right qualifications and competencies, in the right positions, at the right time. • It has a time period of 5 years.

4. Education Human Resource Planning Framework (Cont...) • The objective of this Framework is to enable the education departments to meet the teacher and support staff human resource (HR) needs resulting from their strategic plans. Human resource planning is essential in order to ensure that an organisation’s human resources are capable of meeting its operational objectives.

5. Trends • Trends are monitored to help inform planning; • Trends up until 2011 are available, data for 2012 is presently been analysed and will be ready in July 2013; and • Trends show whether or not perceptions of the public on the provision of teachers to schools are true or not.

6. Demand for teachers • The demand for teachers in the system comes as a result of both the growth in enrolment and the need to replace teachers who terminate from the system through various reasons or causes. • Growth demand normally results from various factors which include growth in enrolments due to population growth, high repetition rates; policy changes such as lowering learner: teacher ratios, lowering class size, or promotion of access to sections of the population which were previously not part of the education system.

7. Demand for teachers (Cont...) • Replacement demand results from the loss of teachers or attrition due to various causes. The main causes of attrition include resignation, death or mortality, discharge due to ill-health and retirement. Each cause requires careful analysis and may require specific policy responses. For instance high levels of resignations may point to problems in retention, whilst discharge due to ill-health may point to a general societal problem or lack of effective wellness programmes.

8. Attrition • Attrition rates or total terminations as a proportion of average teacher establishment per year is reflected in the table below. • The estimated total attrition rate averaged 3.5% (approximately 13 000 educators) annually over the period 2007/08 to 2011/12. • Overall, South Africa’s attrition rates compare well with rates reported in international studies funded by UNESCO and OECD on teacher attrition which found attrition in many countries to be ranging between 5% and 30% (Hunter et al, 2005).

9. Teacher supply • Managing teacher supply involves two important factors: • ensuring adequate supply of teachers with required skills and other competencies at all times; and • ensuring their optimal utilisation in an effective and efficient manner.

10. Existing supply – Age distribution

11. Age distribution • Consistently high concentration around the 40-49 age groups in the last five years. A positive side of this could be that we have highly experienced teachers. • The steep ascent of the line from the 20-29 years to 40-49 years indicates a huge gap in numbers between the two age groups. • Consistent decline in numbers in the age group 30-39 resulting in a steep ascent from the 20-29 to the 40-49 age group. This is clearly an indication of an ageing teacher workforce which will need replacement in future.

12. Qualification profile

13. Qualification profile • A provincial disaggregation shows that 85% of all REQV 10 educators are in KwaZulu-Natal. • Employment of unqualified teachers in high numbers could point to a hidden shortage in that it suggests that the system cannot recruit suitably qualified educators. • Future reports will delve deeper into the analysis of these aspects including factors such as subjects they are teaching, school level/phase and geographical areas.

14. Summary .

15. Appointment of temporary educators

16. Temporary Teachers • It is widely recognized that there would always be a certain number of temporary teachers in the system appointed to due to natural attrition. • Under normal circumstance the rate of temporary appointments must be approximately equal to the attrition rate. • The fact that in 2011/12 the overall rate of employment of temporary teachers averaged about 11% compared to 3.4% attrition rate, suggests that there are other factors that impact on the rate of permanent appointment of teachers. • Measures of reducing the number of temporary teachers that are in place include, the efficient redeployment of excess teachers; frequent advertising of vacancies; conversions from temporary to permanent; the permanent appointment of teachers, including bursars; and recruitment of graduates (REQV 13) and assist them in acquiring a professional teacher qualification.

17. Funza Lushaka Graduates

18. Funza Lushaka Graduates (Cont..) The success rate of placement of Funza Lushaka graduates has improved over the years.

19. IMPACT OF FUNZA LUSHAKA GRADUATES ON THE FILLING OF VACANCIES

20. Foreign educators • PEDs appoint foreign educators to address the shortage specifically in scarce skills subjects. • Given that the majority of the foreign educators were employed in terms of the quota permit system specifically to teach Mathematics Science and Technology, it is clear there are shortages of local educators qualified to teach these subjects.

21. Process for filling vacant posts • Posts are declared at the end of September of each academic year. • Educators, including Deputy Principals and Heads of Department, are identified in schools that are in excess of posts. • PEDs fill vacancies firstly with the above mentioned employees and with Funza Lushaka graduates which normally takes the first quarter of the new academic year. • For the remaining vacancies for teachers they can opt to use section 68(A) of the EEA to convert their temporary teachers to permanent .

22. Process for filling vacant posts (Cont...) • Vacancy lists for entry level teachers are therefore scarce since the above processes can first be exhausted. • For promotional posts once redeployment has been completed, a vacancy list is published in the second and last quarter and filled the first and third quarter. • Through proper planning, which the Education Human Resource Planning Framework and the strategy around recruitment and placement of educators addresses, PEDs can forecast exiting of the system (retirement) and ensure that posts are filled in advance of a teacher leaving the system.

23. Thank you