Question NW3043 to the Minister of Basic Education

Reply:

1. With reference to public ordinary schools, how many Grade R teachers are (a) required and (b) employed by (i) provincial education departments and (ii) school governing bodies in each (aa) province and (bb) district;

1. (a) Grade R is currently not fully funded as part of the mainstream basic education system. Therefore, provisioning for Grade R in public schools is based on assessment of available resources including classroom space and other required resources, and thus mainly supply rather than demand-driven. Therefore, it would be difficult to determine the demand, that is, learners enrolled against teachers required.

(b) Currently, Grade R teachers are either fully employed by the state and thus in state paid posts, or employed by the School Governing Body (SGB) with their salaries subsidised by the state in the form of a stipend. Only the Limpopo and North West provinces have appointed Grade R teachers in fully-funded state posts. The following table shows information supplied by provinces on appointment by province. Information by district could not be obtained.

Province	(b) (i) (aa) Employed by the province	(b) (ii) (aa) Employed by the SGB
EC		4 765
FS		1 270
GP		2 710
KZN		6 486
LP	1 080
MP		2 065
NC		736
NW	1 323
WC		1 767
Total	2 403	19 799

Source: Information supplied by provincial education departments

(2) How many of the specified teachers are qualified at (a) NQF level 4 and (b) NQF level 6 in each (i) province and (ii) district?

The following table indicates the number of teachers qualified at (a) NQF Level 6 in each province. The information for districts is not available.

Province	(i) Level 4	(ii) NQF 6 & above
EC	3 907	429
FS	279	673
GP	108	1 165
KZN	4 800	1 103
LP	0	1 080
MP	785	372
NC	309	110
NW	0	1 323
WC	530	530
Total	11 545	5 429

Source: Information supplied by provincial education departments