1000 Teachers Retire From Gauteng Department of Education

The Gauteng MEC for Education, Angie Motshekga has told the provincial legislature that about one thousand teachers will retire this year. This figure is the highest compared to the one last year. Motshekga was tabling her 2008/2009 R16, 6 billion budget speech at the Gauteng Legislature.

Motshekga said this would further put pressure for the need to provide more educators faster. “I'm reviewing the role of provincial pre – service bursary programme to recruit top talent into the profession. We will begin by placing these new teachers in overcrowded districts and struggling rural towns or with hard – to – staff subjects like Maths and Science in school across the province,” she added.

Furthermore, she urged members of the legislature to help her in encouraging learners to join the profession. “If they commit their lives to teaching, the Gauteng Department of Education will commit to paying for their teacher education and training. Through the department, I'm going to create more space in schools for Internship Programmes to train high quality teachers every year,” continued Motshekga.

According to Motshekga, currently 51 307 educators are rendering their service to the schools of Gauteng. About 2 861 are doing job at special schools while 3 299 are at technical Further Education and Training colleges. At the Adult Basic Education - ABET centres, the department has employed 2 676 educators.