SUPPORT VACUUM: Nine thousand social workers are unemployed, and a million learners are in crisis

A recent parliamentary reply from Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube reveals a stark reality: just 761 social services professionals are left to cover South Africa’s entire public education sector, with further expansion blocked by tight budget caps. Compounding this financial freeze, critical regulations to formalise school social work have been stalled in administrative limbo since 2020, leaving overextended teachers to navigate a mounting classroom mental health crisis entirely alone.

South Africa’s public school system is collapsing under the weight of rampant classroom violence, severe teacher shortages, overcrowding and systemic hunger, warns Dr Marelize Vergottini, Senior Lecturer in Social Work at North-West University (NWU).

For millions of children nationwide, schools are no longer safe havens of learning, but spaces defined by trauma and structural failure. Yet, the expansion of psychosocial support in schools is stalled by a shortage of funded provincial posts and budget constraints. This grim reality was confirmed by the Minister of Basic Education, Siviwe Gwarube, in a recent written parliamentary reply.

Gwarube stated that the Department of Basic Education recognised the seriousness of these increasing concerns. She noted that learner wellbeing was central to effective teaching and learning, adding that schools required clear systems to identify learners who needed support and refer them to the appropriate services.

The department’s psychosocial model relied heavily on school-based and district-based support teams to handle early identification and basic support, and learners who required clinical assessment were then referred to the Department of Health.

“The appointment, funding and deployment of school-based or district-based counsellors, psychologists and other psychosocial support personnel are primarily provincial responsibilities, within the available provincial budgets,” Gwarube stated, adding that further expansion was entirely dependent on “broader fiscal constraints”.

The department’s latest data shows a national headcount of only 761 social services professionals currently in the sector. This total includes, among others, 232 educational psychologists and 54 education counsellors. The department added that in many instances, these professionals were district-based and served multiple schools, making a single national learner-to-counsellor ratio impossible to verify.

This reliance on a scattered, district-level framework underscores the urgent need for a standardised approach to school social work. However, the final