Teacher supply and demand is a complex matter. The ultimate aim is to have a teacher in front of every class, today and for the foreseeable future. This also implies an ideal class size. In SA, the ideal class size is tacit, and not explicit, as there are no class size norms.

If SA were to lower the pupil-teacher ratio from the current 30 to a typical middle income country level of around 25, it would need an additional 100,000 teachers. But can this be done is SA seen that we’re going to be hit by a large scale of teacher retrenchments in the foreseeable future?

Title:                   [• Mr.]   

Name:                 [• Martin Gustafsson ]  

Position at organisation:  [• Education economist at Stellenbosch University ]