JOHANNESBURG - Thousands of public servants are taking the government's retirement offer. The biggest group of the retirees are expected to be teachers.
The government says they expect to save up to R4.4 billion in the wage bill and possibly create funding for over 7,000 additional posts.
The offer comes amid growing concerns over teacher burnout, unruly pupil and heavy workloads.
Education expert Prof. Mary Metcalfe says Treasury's plan might be understandable. Although most of the unions are quite upset, many of the senior teachers are in senior positions within the system.
Metcalfe says the senior teachers have higher salaries which are costly to the system, should they wait for their actual retirement ages. Younger teachers, on the other hand, might be cheaper for government as they are starting off on a lower salary.
She adds that this should not be understood as government not valuing experience older teachers. However, it should be about the easy passage of older teachers and newer teachers.
Metcalfe says the transition in provinces and districts must be handled with great sensitivity from government and teachers need to be replaced.
"We already have quite a high teacher-pupil ratio in some components of the system," she says.
She adds that if older teachers are not replaced, classes will become larger. Provinces need to work on minimizing class numbers. Teacher should not be overworked and overburdened, which is a factor that contribute to the problem of teachers wanting to leave.
With many young teachers sitting at home looking for work, this could be great for them as positions open up.