The Department of Education in Limpopo has recently employed 600 qualified teachers from Zimbabwe. This was announced by the MEC of Education, Mr Namane Masemola, during a media conference that was held in Polokwane last Tuesday.

Masemola said his department had contracted about 600 teachers from Zimbabwe to cope with the shortage of science, mathematics, commerce and technology teachers in the province. “Most of the teachers have been posted to schools that specialise in maths and science subjects. The province is experiencing a serious scarcity of teachers offering these subjects. We therefore decided to enlist the services of Zimbabwean teachers,” he said.

He said the provisioning of teachers for Limpopo schools is an important exercise to ensure quality learning and teaching.

According to Masemola, most of the foreign national teachers are doing their job excellently. He said the Zimbabwean teachers were paid the same salaries and benefits as their South African counterparts.

“The process of verifying their academic qualifications was conducted by the South African Qualifications Authority and the National Department of Education. Zimbabwean teachers will not be considered for jobs in the country before going through that process,” said Masemola.

He highlighted that they had also extended the contracts of temporary teachers – until the end of March this year – to allow the redeployment exercise to be completed.