The excess deaths of teachers due to Covid-19 since its outbreak has not created problems for public education because the departed have been replaced, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga has said.
Replying to written questions in Parliament, Motshekga said the departed teachers fell in the category of annual natural attrition and were continuously replaced.
“The public school sector loses between 18 000-22 000 (4.5%-5.5% of the overall educator population) educators annually due to natural attrition, in the main, driven by resignations, retirements and deaths,” she said.
The education sector was one of the worst affected by the outbreak of the novel virus in 2020. A staggering 1600 teachers died due to coronavirus in 2020, the government revealed that year.
EFF MP Lorato Tito, whose questions Motshekga answered, stated that “confirmed statistics” placed the number of teachers who died due to Covid-19 in the past two years at 3000.
Tito asked Motshekga for the total number of teachers that have been replaced already. Motshekga replied that the departed educators were being replaced continuously.
“Analysis of excess deaths shows that there was a notable increase in deaths during the height of COVID-19,” said Motshekga.
“However, on the whole, the numbers were still within the range in terms of the annual attrition rate experienced by the sector.
“Therefore, educators that the sector lost due to COVID-19 deaths were continuously being replaced as part of the overall replacement of educators due to natural attrition.
“The replacement of educators lost due to attrition is an ongoing process.”
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