The Deputy Minister of Education, Innovation, Youth, Sports, Arts, and Culture, Dino Ballotti, has acknowledged that his ministry received a petition on the 8th of July from unemployed graduate teachers. The petition highlights the challenges they face and includes their demands on how to address this problem.

According to Ballotti, the petition claims that there were about 8,251 graduate teachers who remained unemployed between the years 2017 and 2023, with the number alleged to have exceeded 15,000 in 2025.

"The issue of unemployed graduate teachers, and in particular, the petition received by the Honourable Minister, Sanet Steenkamp, at 14:50 earlier this afternoon at our headquarters at the government office park. Honourable members, the ministry has been engaging extensively with the leadership of the unemployed graduate teachers. To date, we have met with the group on multiple occasions, most notably following their initial march on the 3rd of June, again on the 1st of July, and most recently on the 4th of July of this year."

Ballotti highlighted that the petition raised several concerns, such as the financial constraints graduates face by repeatedly applying for teaching posts and alleged incidents of corruption and nepotism in the recruitment process.

Among the demands in the petition are "Number one, abolishment of teacher recruitment interviews. Number two, the implementation of mass recruitment measures. Number three, creation of a national database of unemployed graduate teachers. Number four, introduction of a compulsory year of accomplishment program for graduates. Number five, enforcement of teacher-learner ratio standards. And number six, temporary suspension of new education training programs."

The deputy minister emphasised that they are treating the matter with utmost urgency and will provide a detailed response later this month.

Ballotti further said that the ministry remains committed to finding solutions to this problem, without compromising the quality of education.

"The issue of graduate unemployment, particularly among qualified teachers, remains a complex national challenge. Quality of education shall at no point be compromised, and we give the assurance of the highest regard that our ministry remains committed to working collaboratively, transparently, and responsibly to find both the short- and the long-term solutions."