Educator workload in South Africa

Abstract

Teachers spend slightly less time on their activities overall, but much less time on teaching than policy requires. There is a serious erosion of instructional time in the majority of schools, but it is worst in rural and semi-rural African schools.

Reasons for the shorter teaching time, among others, range from large classes and all that that implies, increased workload due to lack of administrative support in schools, and increased administrative demands placed on them by outcomes-based education (OBE) assessments. Many teachers are also expected to do work of clerks and fundraise at the same time.

These are some of the results in the Educator Workload in South Africa Report, by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) on the hours that educators actually spend on their various activities. Dr Linda Chisholm a research director at the HSRC, is the main author of the report. The Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) commissioned the report to establish to what extent OBE, continuous assessment (CASS) and other factors might contribute to educator workload and the number of hours they spend on their activities.

The study is based on a nationally representative questionnaire-based survey in 900 schools and case studies in ten schools.