Educator Supply and Demand in the South African Public Education System

Integrated report Education plays a key role in the development of any society. Responding to the need for empirical evidence on the demand for and supply of public educators in South Africa, the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) commissioned the Human Sciences Research Council-led consortium to conduct nation-wide research on the factors determining educator supply and demand in South African public education system. Growth demand for educators depends on learner enrolments and the learner-educator ratio, while replacement demand for educators depends on employment trends, demographics and attrition (including morbidity and morality). Educator supply depends on a number of factors, such as education graduates, morbidity and morality, and educators returning after a break from the profession. This report is an integration of the seven reports which emerged from the research, and pulls together the findings arising from it. What emerges is that the resignation, death and ageing of the present educator force is likely to have a significant effect on replacement demand for educators over the next four years.

Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Contributors

1. Introduction
Michael Young and Andre Kraak

2. Educational Reform in South Africa (1990-2000): An International Perspective
Michael Young

3. Rethinking Education Policy Making in South Africa: Symbols of Change, Signals of Conflict
Jonathan D. Jansen

4. Progressivism Redux: Ethos, Policy, Pathos
Johan Muller

5. Human Resource Development Strategies: Some Conceptual Issues and their Implications
Michael Young

6. Policy Ambiguity and Slippage: Higher Education under the New State, 1994-2001
Andre Kraak

7. Reflections from the Inside: Key Policy Assumptions and How They have Shaped Policy Making and Implementation in South Africa, 1994-2000
Ihron Rensburg

8. Macro-Strategies and Micro-Realities: Evolving Policy in Further Education and Training
Anthony Gewer

9. The Implementation of the National Qualifications Framework and the Transformation of Education and Training in South Africa: A Critique
Michael Cosser

10. Developing Skill and Employment in South Africa: Policy Formulation for Labour Market Adjustment
Ian Macun

Bibliography

Dr Andre Kraak is the Executive Director of the Education, Science and Skills Development Research Programme. Before joining the HSRC, he held three different posts at the University of the Western Cape from 1987 to 1997. He served as senior lecturer in Comparative Education, Head of the Academic Planning Unit, and coordinator of the MPhil Programme on Governance.

Michael Young, is Emeritus Professor of Education at the Institute of Education of the University of London.