Education

Historically, education under apartheid entrenched inequality, with systemic underfunding of Black schools and a curriculum designed to limit social mobility. Post-1994, the democratic state placed education at the centre of transformation. Today, education employs more than 400,000 teachers across schools, while TVET colleges and universities form the backbone of post-school training. Despite progress, chronic challenges remain teacher shortages in STEM subjects, poor literacy rates, and under-resourced rural schools.

The labour market in this sector is paradoxical while thousands of qualified teachers graduate every year, many are unemployed due to budgetary constraints in provincial education departments. At the same time, schools in rural and township areas struggle to recruit competent educators, especially in mathematics, science, and technology. Skills development is uneven, with rural teachers often excluded from advanced training programmes.

Education is the lifeblood of any nation’s prosperity, and in South Africa, it has always been a battlefield of inequality, reform, and aspiration. Administered through the Education Training and Development Practices SETA (ETDP SETA), the sector’s skills development mandate under the National Skills Development Plan 2030 is to equip educators, trainers, and facilitators to meet the evolving demands of a knowledge-driven society.

Looking ahead to 2030, the education sector is expected to embrace blended learning, digital classrooms, and AI-driven education tools. South Africa must also contend with rising global competition in higher education and the need to localise curricula for economic relevance. The country’s future workforce will be shaped by how well today’s learners are taught to adapt to automation, digitalisation, and entrepreneurship.

South Africa’s development is tethered to the quality of its education system, without urgent interventions in teacher training, digital infrastructure, and curriculum reform, the country risks reproducing cycles of poverty. Education must not only prepare learners for exams but equip them for an economy of the future.