Where are the teachers? And where did all the money go?!

          It is the middle of the school year and yet more than 29 000 school educator posts at public schools in South Africa remain vacant – posts that should have been filled at the start of the school year in January.

          “A national disaster is taking place right in front of us. These posts were budgeted for, and the money was paid to provincial education departments a long time ago,” says Dr Jaco Deacon, CEO of FEDSAS (Federation of Governing Bodies of South African Schools). Last month, FEDSAS also pointed out that only three of the nine provinces made the compulsory payments to schools by the deadline of 15 May. These payments are a statutory requirement. 

          “Provincial education departments received two enormous amounts – millions for vacant posts, and even more millions for the statutory payments. This money may not be used for anything else, yet in most instances neither appointments nor statutory payments were made. Any other use of this money would be considered unlawful. In essence these officials are stealing from children!”

          Deacon says 15% of public schools do not have permanently appointed principals. “The Western Cape’s performance is the worst in this regard. More than a quarter of schools have an acting principal, while more than 40% of deputy principal posts remain vacant. One could reasonably assume that there are schools in the Western Cape without any permanent leadership.”

          The Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal each have more than 5000 vacant posts, with more than 4000 vacancies in Gauteng. In eight of the nine provinces more than 5% of available posts are vacant. In the Eastern Cape, Northern Cape and Western Cape this number is more than 10%. In fact, in the Northern Cape more than 16% of available posts remain vacant. “The treasury has taken over all payment functions in the Northern Cape. Although the education department is attempting to pay the amounts that are overdue, the department is using this year’s money for last year’s payments.”

          The exception is the Free State, where there are only 217 vacant posts. The Free State Education Department also made statutory payments to schools before the deadline.

          Deacon says the situation in KwaZulu-Natal is dire. “In addition to the thousands of vacant posts, the provincial education department has not made any statutory payments to date. This education department also neglected to pay some of the service providers of the school nutrition programme, which resulted in thousands of learners not receiving any meals. “To make this a clear as possible: In KwaZulu-Natal there are thousands of hungry learners in classrooms without teachers at schools without money to pay for water and electricity. This is a gross violation of children’s basic rights.”

          FEDSAS’s comprehensive “Education in Numbers” report, based on available data from the Department of Basic Education from 2009-2024, highlights that the number of learners in the education system increased with nearly 960 000 since 2009. At the same time, the number of educators funded by the state increase with just under 5500. In other words, for every 175 additional learners only one additional educator post was created.

          “While post provision remains hopelessly inadequate, provincial education departments continue to gamble with our children’s future by not appointing teachers in the available posts.”

          FEDSAS is urgently calling on the Minister of Basic Education, Siviwe Gwarube, to take action. “Currently, there are no commitments from any provincial education departments, except the Western Cape, to advertise posts at post level 1. FEDSAS is requesting Minister Gwarube to act immediately to ensure that all posts are advertised in a transparent manner to prevent selling of posts.”

          “Provincial education departments continue to act irresponsibly and often unlawfully without any accountability. It seems the tail is wagging the dog.”

Follow this link for a sound clip by Dr Jaco Deacon on this matter: https://bit.ly/FEDSAS_MediaRelease_VM_2025-06-06