With nearly half of publicly employed educators already aged 50 or older and thousands of posts still vacant, the basic education system faces a massive retirement wave that could see almost 50% of teaching positions become vacant in the coming years.
Vacancy Rates Paint a Troubling Picture
According to Persal data from the end of January 2026, there were 17,450 vacancies across 389,286 allocated posts, translating into a national vacancy rate of 4%. However, the situation varies significantly by province, with the Western Cape recording the highest vacancy rate at 11%, followed by the Northern Cape at 10% and Limpopo at 8%.
Gwarube noted that these figures do not tell the full story, as vacancies arise through resignations, retirements, promotions, and temporary absences. Schools and provinces use temporary, substitute, acting, and permanent appointments to keep teaching and learning going. "Accordingly, headline vacancy figures do not always equate to the strict position of there being no educator in front of the class," the reply read.
The Staffing Pipeline Problem
While vacancies exist, the problem is compounded by a system that is failing to prepare and retain enough young teachers. Zayd Waghid, an associate professor in the Faculty of Education at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, told Daily Maverick that there is a significant gap between what student teachers learn at university and what they face in schools.
"Even though they are oriented to teaching practice, many of them are still confronted with other sorts of issues in the school context—issues around gangsterism, all sorts of socioeconomic issues, and learner ill-discipline is also quite a significant issue. The lack of parental support in schools also compounds the issues that these pre-service teachers encounter," said Waghid.
By their fourth year, most student teachers in his study saw teaching as stressful: 76% at one university and 85% at the other agreed or strongly agreed.
Language has emerged as another pressure point. While South Africa's Language in Education Policy promotes multilingualism, teacher education programmes have often been criticized for not preparing student teachers well enough to build literacy in home languages.
Why Young Teachers Stay
Despite staggering anxiety levels and systemic hurdles, research reveals a resilience among the cohort, with many final-year students remaining deeply committed to the vocation. Waghid points to an underlying culture of altruism that defies the harsh conditions.
One student teacher expressed a mix of optimism about the profession's social value and deep concern about systemic barriers: "I feel that the training should be more focused on real classroom conditions, not just theory. We also want better preparation for overcrowded classrooms, discipline challenges and uneven school resources, which shape day-to-day teaching in South Africa. I know there are challenges, but I still want to be a teacher and to help children learn and grow. I feel that this is my calling."
Solutions and Way Forward
To address these issues, Waghid said the fix begins with teacher education that is more practical and better connected to the realities of South African classrooms. Training must prepare teachers for multilingual classrooms, while universities, schools, and communities work together more closely to provide stronger mentorship, better support, and a clearer sense of belonging.
Making the profession more attractive also means restoring dignity to teaching through better pay, lighter workloads, and better-resourced schools. Institutions also need to pay closer attention to student teachers' well-being, because confidence and emotional support are part of what keeps them in the pipeline.
The Department of Basic Education said it does not envisage a single national date by which all funded teaching posts would be filled, because vacancies continuously arise through natural attrition. Gwarube said its role is to support provinces to keep vacancy rates within a reasonable range through improved monitoring and the timely filling of funded posts.
The department is reviewing the Post Provisioning Norms "as a matter of urgency" and continuing to support the teacher pipeline through the Funza Lushaka Bursary Scheme. It is also engaging provinces and the National Treasury on the impact of fiscal pressures on funded posts and schooling capacity.
Department spokesperson Lukhanyo Vangqa said the country doesn't have a shortage of teachers – the problem is a shortage of money to employ them.
Source: This article is based on reporting by Daily Maverick and parliamentary replies from Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube. Read the original report at: Daily Maverick – South Africa's schools are losing teachers faster than they can replace them (Published July 20, 2026)
