Staff at many former model C schools still too white, says Motshekga

When Ann Morton became headmistress of Pinelands North Primary School in Cape Town in 1997, the teaching staff was completely white. Today, 70% of the educators are black. 

While a number of former Model C schools still have predominantly white teachers, her school is among those that have been actively trying to transform the staffroom. 

Last month basic education minister Angie Motshekga said public schools, especially former Model C schools, “still bear the imprints of a divided South Africa”. 

“A concerning observation has been the make-up of our staffrooms. Despite diverse student demographics, the staff demographic remains overwhelmingly white,” she said in her keynote address at a conference organised by the Independent Schools Association of Southern Africa last month.

Morton employed her first “teacher of colour”, Rose-Anne Reynolds, who is now an academic at the University of Cape Town, in 1998. 

She was reluctant to give a breakdown of staff demographics, saying that when providing statistics to the provincial education department, they did not categorise staff or pupils according to race.

“I prefer not to do that. We treat everybody as ‘other’. All our staff and pupils are classified as ‘other’.  It was a purposeful and conscious decision to transform. The staff has to reflect the pupil body.” 

She said there were some schools where the teachers were all white and all the pupils were black. “What does this say to the black children who are in this school, that only white people can teach?” 

She said the teacher interns they employed were from all race groups and were taught how to teach and subsequently employed as teachers by the school. 

The staff demographics at Rondebosch Boys’ High School in Cape Town has also “changed substantially” over the past 10 years, according to its principal Shaun Simpson. 

An estimated 57% of the teaching staff are white, compared to 73% in 2013.

Simpson's executive team has five members, of whom two are black. 

“We strive to employ black teaching interns to ensure we are part of developing a future generation of educators,” he said.

Simpson said 57% of pupils at the school are white and 43% black. 

“We are acutely aware of the need to ensure that our staff demographic is representative of the pupils they teach and continue to work towards this balance.” 

He said teachers do not move from one school to another easily, “particularly where the work environment is conducive and productive.  We are not in a position to force educators out to ensure a faster demographic change. Several of our staff have been employed for over 20 years.”  

Greg Hassenkamp, principal of Pretoria Boys’ High, declined to respond to questions on the staff composition, saying they should be directed to the head of department of education. Photographs of the members of the executive and heads of subjects, as well as the names of the academic staff, showed that staff at Pretoria Boys’ High are still overwhelmingly white. 

A snap survey by TimesLIVE Premium revealed that teaching staff at Grey High School in Gqeberha and Rand Park High in Johannesburg are also predominantly white. Neither school responded to queries.

Basic education department spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga also did not respond to queries. 

Motshekga's observation correct, say education experts

Meanwhile, the dean of the education faculty at the University of the Free State, Prof Loyiso Jita, said Motshekga’s observation that teachers at former Model C schools were predominantly white was correct.   

I am not sure we should be surprised. The major compromises we made over 25 years ago with the South African Schools Act, when we outsourced the hiring of teachers to governing bodies, was bound to give us this outcome

—  Prof Loyiso Jita, dean of education at the University of the Free State

“But I am not sure we should be surprised. The major compromises we made over 25 years ago with the South African Schools Act (Sasa), when we outsourced the hiring of teachers to governing bodies was bound to give us this outcome,” he said. 

Jita said governing bodies were not management structures and “cannot be expected to champion transformation in HR [human resource] terms”.

“The second big compromise in the Sasa was to allow governing bodies to determine the language policy of a school. Many Model C schools used the language policy to remain untransformed and so their hiring policies and cultural practices followed suit.” 

He said it was difficult to expect schools that pay their own teachers from hard-earned school fees “can be bothered about transforming the staff room”.

Prof Labby Ramrathan from the University of KwaZulu-Natal said some student teachers fear teaching in former Model C schools because of not being confident in teaching at well-resourced schools. 

“Some have issues with teacher socialisation and feel marginalised and undermined within some schools,” he said.

The proportion of teachers along racial lines needs to change substantially, he added. 

“Ex-Model C schools need to recruit teachers that come to their school for teaching practice. Employment of teachers needs to be advertised widely so that experienced teachers in other schools can apply for those positions.”