This article contains information on how to get a teaching license in South Africa. In order to become a teacher in South Africa, be it as a citizen or as a foreigner, there are certain requirements you must meet. You must study to earn a teaching degree before you can consider looking for suitable jobs.
However, if you are keen to know exactly what you need to do to become a professional teacher in South Africa, then you should be looking at what subjects are needed to become a teacher in South Africa, the basic qualifications, and schools.
WHAT ARE THE REQUIREMENTS TO BECOME A TEACHER?
1. NATIONAL SENIOR CERTIFICATE (NSC)
As the South African government is committed to raising the standard of education in the country, teachers undergo rigorous training.
Before you can be considered for a degree course, you must make sure you have a National Senior Certificate. The exact details of this certificate vary depending on which university you want to attend. It may also depend on whether you want to teach young or older pupils. If you want to be a primary school teacher the subjects you passed in your NSC will not matter as much. However, if you want to teach a particular subject to older children, you must have pass marks in the appropriate subjects
This implies that if you want a job at a secondary school, you will need a degree in the subject you intend on teaching; for example, you would need a degree in mathematics in order to be considered for a job as a mathematics teacher.
2. TEACHING DIPLOMA
Acquiring a teaching diploma is one of the fastest and least expensive ways to become a professional teacher in South Africa. Anyone who qualifies can pursue any diploma teaching courses in South Africa at a vocational or teaching school.
The good thing is that you can specialize from the very beginning and select the subjects you would like to teach. It takes about 18 months to complete a teaching diploma in South Africa.
3. BACHELOR OF EDUCATION DEGREE
This is the best and easiest way to become a teacher in South Africa especially if you are a citizen or resident. Depending on the plan you select for your studies, you will need to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in education for a period of 4 years. While this automatically qualifies you to teach in South Africa, you can always back it up with a two year honours, masters and a doctorate degree. This is advisable if you plan to teach in tertiary institutions.
4. THREE TO FOUR (3-4) YEARS DEGREE AND A 1-YEAR PGCE
This is a further step from the bachelor’s degree, it is most preferred if you would like to specialize in teaching specific subjects. The Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) has to be in the same subjects you chose in your 4-year degree. Generally, you qualify to be a professional high school teacher in a specific subject if you take this path.
It is important to note that completing these stages is not enough to give you access to teaching in South Africa. In other words, before you can be recognized as a professional teacher in South Africa, you need to get a license.
WHAT IS A TEACHING LICENSE?
A teaching license is a teaching credential that allows you to legally work as a teacher within a designated area. Depending on where you’re from, a teaching credential means the same thing.
WHAT COUNTS AS A TEACHING LICENSE?
A teaching license refers to the teaching credential that is needed to allow you to legally work as a teacher in a given area (in countries abroad as well as in your home state, province, or country).
Your teaching license is usually accredited by the appropriate governing body in your home state or country. Most times if not all the time, teaching licenses are usually a primary requirement by international schools or programs looking to hire international teaching candidates.
It’s important to be aware of the requirements for maintaining your teaching license. Like other professional licenses, your teaching license will expire after a certain time period so you’ll need to renew it from time to time.
As a licensed teacher, you’ll usually earn a credential that qualifies you to teach either a specific grade level or a certain subject matter.
REGISTER WITH SOUTH AFRICAN COUNCIL FOR EDUCATORS (SACE)
Once you become a qualified and certified teacher or have the certificates that permit you to teach in South Africa, you need to register with the South African Council for Educators (SACE) to start practicing. This is a prerequisite before you can get a teaching appointment.
South African Council of Educators (SACE) will require you to submit a fully filled application form, present your identity card, an up-to-date police clearance certificate and pay the registration fee. The registration fee is usually around R200 for South African citizens and R400 for non-South African citizens.
Furthermore, to apply for SACE registration, non-South Africans will have to submit;
- Proof of employment by a school in South Africa
- A work permit allowing you to teach in South Africa
- An evaluation report for employment in education obtained from the Department of Basic Education: Education Qualifications and Program sector
- An evaluation report from SAQA
- Proof of permanent residence in South Africa
- Non-South African identity document
- Letter of good ethical and/or professional standing from Council for Educators or Department of Education in your country of origin. The letter should be on a letterhead, stamped, signed and not be more than a year old when submitted to SACE
- Certified copy of your marriage certificate (optional).
- Proof of legal entry into South Africa. This could be a passport and visa, asylum seekers or refugees permit (permits must be valid when submitted).
It is also important you choose the phase (level of schooling) you wish to specialize in.
You will need to consider the age range that you would like to teach. The age ranges are clustered into phases. Please note that the age ranges indicated below only serve as a guideline. There will be instances where a slightly younger/older child forms part of a particular phase.
Some higher education institutions (HEIs) allow for a combination of phase specializations. In this case, you could specialize in two consecutive phases. For the Intermediate, Senior and FET Phases, you will be given the opportunity to choose the subjects that you wish to specialize in, which include fields in languages, mathematics, the sciences, technology, business and management, and the humanities.
Upon submitting these, the SACE then goes through your application and carries out a proper investigation before you are approved to teach in South Africa. As soon as the evaluation process has been completed, an evaluation certificate will be issued to the provincial department of education where you submitted your document. They will inform you in writing of the outcome of your application.
You will be given an SACE registration number that uniquely identifies your registration and status.
CRITERIA FOR REGISTERING ACADEMICALLY QUALIFIED AND PROFESSIONALLY UNQUALIFIED PEOPLE
Professionally unqualified persons will be accorded provisional registration with a condition that they produce proof of completion for a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) together with a complete academic record indicating that the qualification has been completed (refer to the SACE website for the registration. The validity period will be two years.
If PGCE is not completed within the two years, a one year grace period will be given to the applicant.
If at the end of the three (3) years, the application has still not completed the PGCE, no further extension will be granted and the applicant’s information will be removed from the SACE register of educators.
PROCESSING TIME
- If you are a South African citizen, your registration will take six weeks.
- If you are a non-South African citizen, your registration will take three months.
All educators working in South African schools, public and independent, in the GET or FET (further education and training) bands, must be registered with SACE (the South African Council of Educators). It is illegal for any teacher to work without a license.
A teaching license is a very important prerequisite for every qualified teacher.
There are numerous reasons why you need a teaching license as an Educator:
First, you can increase your earning potential. Obtaining your teaching license is the easiest way to automatically be considered for a higher salary at schools. When hiring teachers, most schools offer a very broad salary range to their teachers. It is a known fact that salaries are scaled based on a candidate’s total years of experience, but then, your formal teaching credentials, such as a teaching license is a great advantage.
The truth of the matter is that the high end of the salary range is reserved for teachers with formal teaching credentials, while the bottom end of the salary is usually offered to teachers without licensure. An easy way to automatically increase your earnings and hit the top end of that salary range would be to get your teaching license.
Secondly, you will have more teaching job options. For teachers that are looking to teach at an international school, there are several options for you. However, there is a large percentage of schools in the international market that will not consider teachers without teaching licenses.
Obtaining your teaching license will be the easiest way to open up more doors and allow you as a teacher to be considered for many more positions than you otherwise would have. Keep in mind, that schools that only consider licensed teachers also tend to offer much higher salaries.
Getting a teaching license in South Africa is not a problem especially as a citizen of another country. With your license, you can teach if you decide to relocate. While it’s quite feasible for teachers to spend decades working abroad, generally speaking, most teachers end up going back to their home countries eventually. Oftentimes, when returning home, teachers are overwhelmed with the task of finding a job in their home country, and many are unemployed for several months before finding a way to pay the bills.
However, teachers with a proper teaching license can easily transition back into their home countries with the experience they gained abroad on top of their credentials.
Thirdly, having a teaching license will make you a more competitive candidate for a teaching job. The international teaching market is a highly competitive one. Big international schools always get numerous applications. As an applicant with a license, you stand a better chance of getting the job out of thousands of applicants.
Furthermore, you will become a better teacher. This is because, if you put in the time and go through a full-licensing program, you will learn a lot. Even if you have years of teaching experience, learning from a formal licensure program will open you more exposed to teaching methods you may never have known about, and it could help you fill any skill gaps that you might have.
CONCLUSION
The bottom line is if you are considering teaching as a career, after getting the necessary degrees, getting a license is a great way for you to become a better educator. All licensing programs include hours of informative coursework, as well as the opportunity to learn from more experienced professional teachers. As much as it is not easy to process the license, it is very important for your career advancement. If you’re a South African resident, getting a teaching license is highly mandatory as it is illegal to get into teaching in SA without a license.
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