Kutlwano Rawana, Rectron. Photo: Karolina Komendera

A Japanese proverb describes a great teacher as being better than a thousand days of diligent study. But, for one reason or another, great teachers are hard to come by in South Africa, and the situation is not expected to improve. While the Department of Basic Education says it isn’t concerned by an expected teacher shortage in the near future, recent research from Stellenbosch University’s Research on Socioeconomic Policy Unit shows that around half of the current public school teacher population is over the age of 55 and will soon be due for retirement. As such, the country needs as much as 25 000 graduates annually in order to maintain a good teacher-pupil ratio.

With this in mind, there’s a need to come up with ways to enable the teachers we have to do more with less. According to the World Bank, technology can be used to coach and mentor teachers more effectively, complement teachers’ knowledge, create virtual communities where teachers can share ideas and information, and manage teachers more effectively and deploy them more strategically.