An analysis of human resource management in the Department of Education, Vhembe District

Abstract

The development of a country is wholly dependent on the nature and quality of the resources at its disposal. Human resources are basic to the coordination and mobilisation of all the other resources. Thus a country’s education system should be capable to produce highly skilled people capable of harnessing and making efficient, effective and economic use of the resources available. Teachers are an essential resource – the resource – to the country’s education system. Their effective management should therefore be paramount to any education district. There is an incessant outcry that the country is facing a general shortage of teachers. The shortage is more acute in subjects like Maths, Science, and Commerce. This study set out to analyse how the Department of Education, Vhembe District, is managing the situation. The researcher’s hypothesis was that the District is in dire straits as far as the supply of the above-mentioned educators is concerned. The researcher reviewed a wide range of literature in an attempt to understand the phenomena better and to obtain the right, relevant, and latest data available. Books, journals, the electronic print media, and a whole range of government sources like Acts, Regulations, White Papers, and circulars were consulted. A whole chapter was dedicated to the review of legislative framework within which human resources in education takes place. Scientific research design and methodology was employed in the data gathering process. Ethical considerations were always at the back of the researcher’s mind all the time. The researcher ensured that the findings are valid and reliable by ensuring that the population, the sample and the instruments used were carefully chosen and designed. A fairly large sample was used for this study, lending it reliable and generalizable to not only Vhembe District, but to other districts as well. The study confirmed the researcher’s worst fears: the Department of Education, Vhembe District, is facing a critical shortage of Maths, Science, and Commerce educators.