Provinces recruiting teachers from abroad

While the Department of Basic Education struggles to find South Africans who can teach maths, science and technology, the provinces are going for foreign teachers .

More than 5400 foreign teachers work in public schools. Most of them, 3796, are from Zimbabwe, according to May figures taken from the government employee database, Persal.

A total of 501 are from India, 500 from Ghana and 90 from Namibia.

Most of the foreign teachers teach maths, physical science and technology to pupils from Grade 7 to Grade 12 and work in Gauteng (1286), Eastern Cape (975) and Limpopo (934).

Teachers' unions said yesterday that the country is not producing sufficient teachers because school leavers shun the occupation because of the low pay.

SA Democratic Teachers' Union general secretary Mugwena Maluleke said that many graduate teachers leave the country to work overseas because the "profession in South Africa is not attractive".

National Professional Teachers' Organisation of SA president Esrah Ramasehla said: "We are not growing our own teachers locally, but we are depending on teachers from Zimbabwe and India in key subjects like maths and science."

About 10000 teachers leave the occupation each year, but little more than 6000 teachers graduate each year, the Basic Education Department said.

It is estimated that the schooling system needs about 12000 to 16000 new teachers each year, but the department claims there is no "crisis of classrooms without teachers" because temporary teachers are used to fill vacancies.

There is a dire need for teachers in the foundation phase, and for teaching maths, technology and science in higher grades, Basic Education spokesman Hope Mokgatlhe said yesterday.

"Foreign-qualified educators" were being employed as a temporary measure, while the department was working to increase the number of locally trained teachers, she said.

Mokgatlhe said the department had established the Funza Lushaka scheme, which offers bursaries to education students to counter shortages of skills such as those of maths and science teachers.

Thobekile Nyathi, 40, from Zimbabwe, was recruited to teach maths and accounting at Zenzeleni High School, outside Groblersdal, in Limpopo. She came to South Africa in 2007 and initially struggled with the pupils' ill-discipline.

Many foreign teachers are employed on a temporary basis, which Nyathi said she finds challenging because she cannot plan ahead.