Abstract:
The literature suggests that the quality of the education learners
receive in South Africa is well below par, due to, inter alia, the
fact that a substantial number of educators in South African
schools cannot be characterised as competent, average, good
or excellent. A large percentage of educators may be regarded
as poor performers and approximately 20 per cent of them do
not have the required minimum qualifications for the tasks they
have to perform. To explore the challenge facing South Africa,
I examine the literature on the relationship between educators
and the quality of education, and address the question as to
whether legal mechanisms could, at crucial points in a teacher’s
career, help ensure that competent educators are attracted to,
and employed in the profession. It is common knowledge that the
law governs all activities and processes that obtain in education,
including those that determine the quality of educators entering
the profession. In this article, I examine some of the aspects of
the relationship between the law and the quality of educators.
I begin with an analysis of key concepts such as ‘education’ and
‘educator/teacher’ and, drawing on the work of renowned metaanalysts
who argue convincingly that there is a clear link between educational quality and educator quality, I foreground the need
to regulate all aspects of educator deployment optimally, in
order to ensure the presence of suitable educators in all classes.
I trace the road typically travelled by every educator from prerecruitment
and training, and explore the role the law can play,
at a number of crucial waypoints, to help address the less than
satisfactory status quo. I consider, inter alia, how education
students are recruited, selected, trained, and certified as
professional educators. I also scrutinise the role of professional
registration, appointments and appointment processes,
induction, professional development, and conditions of service
of educators. I explore how the law can, at important waypoints
in educators’ career, enhance the quality of educators, and argue
that the law may be key to ensuring that there are competent
educators in every classroom.