Number of schools in South Africa in 2022, by sector

As of 2022, the total number of schools in South Africa amounted to nearly 24,900. The majority of these schools were public entities, covering around 90.8 percent of the total number of schools. On the other hand, only 2,282 schools were independent educational institutions. It is worth noting that KwaZulu-Natal was the province with the highest number of schools as of the said year.

KwaZulu-Natal has the largest number of teachers, Gauteng ranked second

Besides the number of schools in KwaZulu-Natal, the province also had the highest number of teachers, aggregating to around 96,000. Over 95 percent of them taught in public schools. Moreover, although the Gauteng province followed Eastern Cape and Limpopo in number of schools, it ranked second in number of teachers, totaling 93,453. Public educational institutions employed most of the teaching staff. The province also had the highest count of independent educators. Generally, in each region, the increasing trend in the number of teachers meets the growing volume of student enrollees.

Almost half of the unemployed have less than matric

     Unemployment was more prevalent among individuals with lower educational attainment. As of 2022, slightly over 50 percent of the unemployed individuals in the country had an academic level below matric. On the other hand, tertiary graduates made up 2.8 percent of the unemployed. Moreover, the share of adults over 20 years old who completed grade 12 reached 35.9 percent in 2021, making it the most achieved educational status that year. By comparison, 14.6 percent of student attained post-school education. Between 2012 and 2019, South Africa’s gross tertiary enrollment ratio increased from just over 19 percent to around 24 percent.