A teaching bursary was launched about 15 years ago to help students who wanted to enter the teaching profession. Since then, there has been an increasing need for qualified instructors in South Africa.
According to information provided by the Department of Basic Education (DBE), 183,609 teaching students have received teaching bursaries.
The department started with just 3662 teaching students in 2007 and had its highest number of recruits in 2017 for the Funza Lushaka Bursary programme.
As part of its selection criteria, the bursary funds young South Africans who demonstrate good academic ability and an interest in studying a teaching profession.
The applicant must first be accepted into an approved Bachelor in Education degree or Postgraduate Certificate in Education programme, specializing in two or more of the priority subject areas.
In a meeting, the Education Department clarified:
Students ought to be committed and show enthusiasm for a professional career in teaching.
These bursaries come with a requirement that recipients teach in a public school for the same number of years they got the bursary.
The agency has emphasized that after graduation, the pupils have six months to enroll in public schools. 33,113 bursary holders are anticipated to have been hired after graduating over an eight-year period beginning in 2013.
Successful teaching graduates under the Funza Lushaka bursary will not be required to provide any form of repayment for the bursary unless they do not adhere to the bursary conditions.
They can then be asked to pay back the teaching scholarship. The total amount of the bursary earned through the program, less than one year‘s assistance for each year of teaching in a public school, is what must be repaid.
According to a statement from the Department of Education, applications for the teaching bursary for 2023 commenced on October 17, 2023, and will close on January 16, 2023, for new applicants.