How SA's massive teacher shortages are harming South Africa’s learners (and their future)

CapeTalk's Clarence Ford is joined by education consultant Professor Michael Le Cordeur, Emeritus Professor in Education at Stellenbosch University and Chairperson of the Foundation for Empowerment through Afrikaans.

Listen below:

Schools without principals, thousands of teaching posts unfilled,  teachers facing burnout and some class sizes heading to the 100-learner-per-teacher mark.

In his latest piece for the Daily Maverick, Professor Michael Le Cordeur writes that South Africa’s education system is facing a crisis.

He highlights the 31,800 teacher and principal posts sitting vacant, and asks how can a school run without leadership?

The impact he says, filters down through the school and ultimately comes to rest on the shoulders of the learners.

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"If we are serious about education and we want to adhere to our Constitution...then surely you cannot have a situation where you have almost 32 000 permanent teacher posts vacant."

- Professor Michael Le Cordeur, Emeritus Professor in Education - Stellenbosch University

"These are posts that are paid for already, budgeted for and yet there are so many young teachers out there that are looking for jobs."

- Professor Michael Le Cordeur, Emeritus Professor in Education - Stellenbosch University

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The fall out of leaving so many posts unfilled is dire, suggests Le Cordeur.

"If we don't fill these posts, it means many, many learners out there who have difficulties even getting to school in the morning - some crossing rivers, some dodging gangsters' bullets - and then to get to school to see there's nobody in class who can teach them."

- Professor Michael Le Cordeur, Emeritus Professor in Education - Stellenbosch University

And, he says, it's something government should have addressed long ago.

"It's our learners and our teachers that are suffering."

- Professor Michael Le Cordeur, Emeritus Professor in Education - Stellenbosch University

Le Cordeur says it's a shame the previous Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga's passion for education never bore fruit.

"Unfortunately that passion never transpired into action."

- Professor Michael Le Cordeur, Emeritus Professor in Education - Stellenbosch University