‘Teaching is breaking us': Eastern Cape's crisis a microcosm of national meltdown

The Herald

18-06-2025

When half of SA's teachers are ready to leave the profession, not because of unruly pupils but because of toxic work environments, you know the system is teetering on the edge.
That's what a national study by Stellenbosch University recently revealed.
It found that nearly 50% of teachers want to quit, citing stress, poor leadership and burnout, not discipline issues, as the final straw. But what the study does not capture is how this crisis hits harder and deeper in places like the Eastern Cape.
In the under-resourced, overlooked schools of the Ngcobo education district, teachers aren't just 'thinking' about leaving. They're already disengaged, emotionally battered and on the brink of collapse.
The reality? Children are being taught by professionals who barely hold it together, and no-one is coming to save them.
The forgotten foot soldiers
Teachers in this district are drowning in stress; silent, unseen casualties of a broken system. But here's the shocking part: most principals have no training or support to help them recognise or manage this burnout.
That's not opinion; it's fact, backed by local research involving face-to-face interviews with teachers in five Ngcobo primary schools.
Teachers report being emotionally exhausted, unsupported and repeatedly exposed to unresolved conflicts, unfair workloads and dysfunctional leadership. One respondent put it bluntly: 'Some principals don't know how to handle school conflict. There are no structures placed to look after us.'
In other words, teachers are suffering in silence while school leaders, many themselves overwhelmed and ill-equipped, turn a blind eye.
It starts in grade R and ends in crisis
Let's not forget: these aren't high schools. These are primary schools where children are forming foundational skills in reading, maths and emotional development. But when the teacher in front of them is burnt out, angry and absent, what kind of foundation are we laying?
Imagine a grade 2 child trying to learn to read from a teacher battling anxiety and depression, someone who hasn't received psychological support in years. That child does not stand a chance.
And yet, there are no psychologists, no social workers, and no systemic support for rural teachers. It's a powder keg, and it's already exploding.
No systems, no training, no hope
According to Voyiya's research, most principals in Ngcobo have no formal systems to identify teachers in distress. They aren't trained to intervene. They don't get the support needed to build a healthy school climate.
The result? Dysfunction, absenteeism, incomplete syllabi and plummeting morale.
Contrast that with the national picture from Stellenbosch University: teachers across the country are desperate for change. But in rural Eastern Cape schools, the desperation has metastasised into resignation, both literal and emotional.
The phrase 'chronic stress' appears in textbooks. But in Ngcobo, it's playing out in real-time, every school day.
A failure of leadership and policy
Why is it that, in 2025, with all our talk of 'transforming basic education,' there is still no national mandate to train principals in psychosocial leadership? Why is rural Eastern Cape still treated as a footnote in the education conversation, when it's arguably the front line?
We need to reframe principals not just as administrators, but as human resource managers, emotional first responders and mental wellness advocates. Until we do, nothing changes.
The department of basic education must introduce mandatory psychological wellness training, support systems for school leaders, and place social workers in every school. Anything less is a betrayal.
When the teachers break, the system crumbles
SA doesn't have a learning problem. It has a leadership problem. It has a support problem. It has a justice problem.
If the national government truly cares about learning outcomes, it must stop obsessing over test scores and start caring about the people delivering the curriculum.
Teachers aren't robots, they are humans facing immense emotional strain, especially in rural provinces like the Eastern Cape.
So here's the hard truth: if we don't address teacher stress with urgency, our children will be taught by ghosts, people present in body but long gone in spirit.
And that, more than anything, should terrify us.
Dr Mzoli Osborn Voyiya is a school principal and graduated with a PhD in Education Management at Walter Sisulu University, supervised by Prof Sanjay Balkaran. His research focused on teacher wellbeing, rural school leadership and systemic support in under-resourced education districts.
This special report into the state of literacy, a collaborative effort by The Herald, Sowetan and Daily Dispatch, was made possible by the Henry Nxumalo Foundation