South Africa’s growth debate usually centres on power stations, ports and roads, but the country’s most productive infrastructure may be standing at the front of a classroom. This World Teachers’ Day, marked on 5 October, education and economic experts are pressing investors, policymakers and business leaders to treat teachers as economic enablers whose work determines the size and quality of the future workforce, and therefore the future returns on nearly every other investment in the economy.
The numbers behind that argument are stark. South Africans holding a university degree have an employment rate of around 78%, compared with just 42% for those whose highest qualification is matric and roughly 30% for those who did not complete secondary school. Despite improvements in matric pass rates, a significant number of learners still leave the schooling system before completing Grade 12, capping their prospective income capacity and their ability to participate meaningfully in the economy. Strengthening learning outcomes and improving education quality is described as one of the most important levers available to South Africa to drive inclusive growth, reduce poverty and build the skills a more competitive economy requires.
“Teachers are often viewed primarily as social contributors, but they are equally economic contributors,” says Osagyefo Mazwai, investment strategist at Investec Wealth & Investment International. “Every learner who stays in school, develops critical thinking skills and progresses into further education or employment represents future productivity, innovation and economic value. If we want a more competitive South Africa, we need to start by recognising the people who are building that future workforce every day.”
Mazwai frames the profession in explicitly capital terms. “Teachers are shaping the productive capital of this country,” he says. “South Africa’s ability to grow, industrialise and compete globally will depend on the skills of its people. That makes teachers every bit as important to our future prosperity as physical infrastructure.” While government investment in school infrastructure, teaching resources and educator support remains essential, he argues that the private sector also has a meaningful role to play through partnerships, skills programmes, technology access and initiatives that help bridge resource gaps and expand opportunity. “If South Africa wants a stronger economy tomorrow, it must place greater value on the professionals helping shape it today.”
The market context sharpens the case. As economies globally adapt to rapid technological change, digital transformation and climate-related transitions, demand is growing for problem-solving, digital literacy, STEM capability, adaptability and critical thinking. These capabilities, Mazwai notes, are not developed overnight; they are cultivated over years through effective teaching and learning. For an economy that cannot rely indefinitely on exporting raw commodities while importing high-value skills, as Petronella Mohale puts it, the domestic supply of skilled labour is a competitive question as much as a social one.
Mohale, departmental head at Letsibogo Girls SOS in Soweto and a Kutlwanong Promaths tutor, argues that teaching is arguably the profession on which all others depend, yet it is too often treated as a cost rather than an investment, and is seldom afforded the same status, recognition or reward as other professions. That perception has real consequences, she says, shaping everything from remuneration and career longevity to the ability to attract and retain talented educators in a role that increasingly requires them to be a teacher, psychologist, mentor and social worker in equal measure. The call comes as the profession faces rising pressures, including growing classroom demands, evolving digital requirements and ongoing resource constraints.
By this reading, elevating the teaching profession is not only an education priority but an economic imperative. As the brief’s concluding voice puts it, this World Teachers’ Day the call is not simply to celebrate teachers but to support them: better outcomes require more than funding alone, they require active partnerships, and it will take a collective national effort to raise the capable, skilled and resilient generation that South Africa’s economic future depends on.