An expected teacher exodus in South Africa could be a good thing
An unprecedented wave of retirements by educators is foreseen by 2030, just as the pupil population peaks. Unless well managed, this could cause teacher shortages and rising class sizes. But strangely, a mass exodus of older staff members could be just the thing the education system needs
01 December 2022 - 05:00
For months education researchers have been fiercely flagging the fact that a huge wave of teacher retirements is going to hit South Africa between now and 2030, as more than half of public school teachers are already over the age of 50.
The good news is that, given the strides universities have made in ramping up the production of young teachers in recent years, they should be better able to meet the additional demand. New teacher graduates also score significantly higher than older teachers on content knowledge tests, especially in maths...
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