𝐒𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐥 – 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝟐

𝐒𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐥 – 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝟐

The greatest expense in any school is that of staff salaries, most especially those of teaching staff. In this regard, some better-resourced public schools have the upper hand as some of their staff are paid directly by the Department of Education. However, with pupil-to-educator ratios in the 1:40 range, many of these schools supplement their teaching staff with staff employed solely by the school. In schools where you have some teachers employed by the Department of Education and some by the school, the salaries of the school-employed staff are generally on par with those of the state-paid employees hence the cost of employing additional teachers is significant.

For this reason, part 2 of this series focuses on teaching staff.

The questions to ask yourself when looking at the teaching staff of any school are as follows:

1. 𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙖𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙖𝙜𝙚 𝙖𝙜𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙩𝙚𝙖𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙨?

2. 𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙦𝙪𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙛𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 𝙙𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙚𝙭𝙥𝙚𝙘𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙩𝙚𝙖𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚?

3. 𝙃𝙤𝙬 𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙮 𝙨𝙥𝙚𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙛𝙛 𝙙𝙤𝙚𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙘𝙝𝙤𝙤𝙡 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚?

In an ideal world, the school fees would indicate the quality of the staff being employed and one would be forgiven for thinking that higher fees equate to better qualified, more experienced staff. Unfortunately, this is definitely not the case. One of the ways in which smaller independent schools are able to reduce their overheads is by employing younger, less experienced staff. While there is an argument to be made about the positive aspects of having younger staff with fresh ideas and innovative ideas, it is imperative that these younger teachers have solid support base from older and more experienced staff members. If almost the whole staff is made up of young teachers, this is an indication that the school may be cutting down on overheads by underpaying their teachers. This is more common than one would think, and in some cases, schools are paying less than half what they should be. As a result, as soon as those teachers have a bit of experience, they move onto positions where they are better compensated, resulting in very high staff turnover rates in the school.

The age demographic of the teaching staff is not likely to be discussed at Open Days and the likes, so this does require some sleuthing on the part of the parents. If you are doing a tour of the school, make sure you take note of the teachers in the classrooms and not just the facilities themselves. In addition to this, have a look at the school’s website and social media accounts. There are some schools that have elected to have a profile on their teachers on their website detailing their area of specialisation (for high school teachers), and their qualifications. This is fantastic – but very few schools do this, for various reasons including the POPI Act. As can be expected, the schools that do have this information readily available are typically those that have a very balanced, well-qualified staff.

Every teacher in South Africa is expected to be a member of SACE (South African Council for Educators), which has certain guidelines in place regarding appropriate qualifications for teachers as well as holding educators to a standard of conduct. In order to be employed in a school, a teacher should have to provide proof of their SACE registration, but in independent schools this is not always adhered to very well. As a parent, it is well within your rights to ask if a teacher is SACE registered and/or what their qualifications are. The more diplomatic manner of doing this is to ask if all the school’s teachers are SACE registered, but there should be no concerns if you chose to ask what the minimum qualification for teaching staff is, if all is above board. The Department of Education has made it a little more complicated in recent years for unqualified staff to ‘slip through the cracks’ in schools, but there are always cases where this does still happen. In all honesty, there is a part of me that longs for a return to academic dress on special occasions as this is the most visible means of observing whether a staff member is qualified, as unqualified teachers may not wear an academic hood unless it has been properly conferred upon them at a graduation. However, the cost of academic wear is exorbitant and out of the reach of most teachers (never mind being very stifling in KZN summers!).

Many schools (both public and independent) employ education students as ‘intern teachers’ as well, for various reasons. These teachers are usually studying towards a Bachelor of Education degree and have to prove this in order to be granted a provisional registration with SACE for the year in which they are studying. One of the biggest drivers of employing intern teachers is to reduce the work load on classroom teachers and to possibly use them as specialist teachers, in some cases. I personally find this a bit of a grey area and believe that parents in fee-paying schools have a reasonable expectation to have their children taught by fully-qualified teachers at all times. Life is unpredictable and at times teachers are called away from the classroom. In some schools, the intern teachers are expected to teach the class during this time and in certain cases this is unavoidable. An intern teacher is better than no teacher whatsoever, obviously. However, if your child’s teacher is away for an extended period of time, and they report that they are being taught by one of the younger teachers, you are again within your rights to question the level of qualification of the ‘new’ teacher. Bear in mind that it is possible for a person to get a provisional SACE registration in their first year of study, when they are fresh out of school themselves. Ideally, intern teachers should always be teaching alongside a full-qualified teacher.

The question pertaining to the qualification of teachers in the school is possibly more important at the pre-school and Grade R level. There are different requirements for teachers in the pre-school level, and a number of ways in which someone can become qualified to teach in these environments. Sadly, not all these qualifications are equal. Some courses are 6 months in length, while a Bachelor of Education requires 4 years of study. In a Grade R unit attached to a primary school, you will typically find that the staff are expected to have the same qualifications as the rest of the teaching staff – usually a Bachelor degree. Until recently Grade R did not even fall under the Department of Education (it was part of the Department of Social Development) so there was no expectation for teachers to be registered with SACE. As a result, there are many pre-schools that cut costs have been employing teachers with qualifications that do not allow for registration with SACE.

Finally, at a high school level, it is the norm for teachers to be subject-specialists so the last question is not generally applicable to those entering Grade 8. However, at a primary school level teachers are expected to teach every single subject, including additional languages, music and Maths. Personally, I believe this to be unrealistic given the criteria for entry into education studies, but the reality is that many schools cannot afford to employ specialist staff, outside of music and physical education specialists. This is the one area in which you pay for what you get, and if the fees of a school are quite high, I would expect to see that there are numerous subject specialist teachers on the staff.

In summary, some of the red flags to look out for are as follows:

1. Most of the teachers are very young, and newly qualified.

2. A hesitation to confirm that all teachers are SACE registered.

3. Intern teachers teaching without a mentor teacher in the classroom for extended periods of time.

As always, should you have any concerns regarding a school you are interested in for your child, please do your research prior to enrolling your child. If you are battling with this decision, you are welcome to contact me on help@soseducation.co.za to book an appointment to chat about your child’s educational journey.