The Department of Basic Education (DBE) maintains its confidence in excellent teaching demonstrated by primary and secondary school teachers across all nine provinces. In preparation for the National Teaching Awards (NTAs), the DBE, through the assistance of education experts in various education disciplines, facilitated the NTA adjudication process aimed at identifying the cream of the crop in the teaching profession for imminent recognition during the NTA Ceremony scheduled for 1 October 2026. More than 133 teachers in their distinguished focus areas successfully captivated adjudication panellists who facilitated the 2026 NTA adjudication processes at the Birchwood Hotel and OR Tambo Conference Centre, Gauteng Province from 15 to 18 September 2026.

DBE’s Director for Continuing Professional Teacher Development, Ms Vonani Mathonsi, explained the impact of each NTA category: “The 2026 NTAs consist of 15 categories through which the top performing teachers will be honoured. Our theme for this year’s NTAs is: “Uniting for Excellence, Elevating Achievement, Empowering Educators to shape South Africa’s Future” to promote the DBE’s sector priorities, the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, and the 2063 Africa Agenda. The NTAs are used as a yardstick to determine the progress that provinces have made towards envisaged education reform in South Africa. The impact of the NTAs can therefore be flagged in themes such as Foundational Learning (ECD), Literacy and Numeracy, which is aligned to Excellence in Grade-R Teaching; Excellence in Teaching Life Skills (Grade 1–6); and Excellence in Primary School Teaching. Another theme is Inclusive Education and Equity/Redress. DBE’s commitment to Education White Paper 6 and the Policy on Screening, Identification, Assessment and Support (SIAS), focus directly on the Constitutional redress goals, access, equality, named in the general adjudication criteria. The categories that respond to this constitutional mandate include Excellence in Inclusive Education Teaching and Excellence in Inclusive Education Leadership.

STEM education, Numeracy and Scientific Literacy is another theme that has been considered in the NTAs this year. The theme has been aligned to the DBE's push on gateway subjects needed for higher education and economic participation, which is also echoed in Minister Gwarube’s State of the Nation (SONA) response. It links education to skills development, youth unemployment, growth and job creation. “We have therefore found Excellence in Teaching Mathematics (GET); Excellence in Teaching Mathematics (FET); Excellence in Teaching Natural Sciences; and Excellence in Teaching Physical Science, as appropriate categories for this theme. School Leadership, Governance and Functionality is another critical theme identified for the NTAs. This theme focusses on school-functionality as a priority, district-level goals of action-driven monitoring and responsive decision-making. Excellence in Primary School Leadership and Excellence in Secondary School Leadership have been considered specifically for this purpose. One other theme that we have chosen was Digital Transformation and 4IR Readiness. This theme reflects the 4IR and entrepreneurial skills integration across subjects, grades and phases in preparing learners for a changing world. The response to the theme has been underpinned by the Excellence in Technology-Enhanced Teaching and Learning,” she said.

Ms Mathonsi added that “we also considered secondary schooling that determines NSC outcomes as an additional theme for this year. The theme focuses on the DBE’s concern about the dropout rate and the Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET) group. The intention of the Three Stream Model (TSM), Entrepreneurship Education and the General Education Certificate (GEC), serves as potential opportunities to allow learners to follow different pathways to become job creators rather than jobseekers. The Excellence in Secondary School Teaching category links well with this theme. Our last theme is Teacher Professionalisation and Global Competitiveness. This theme reflects the DBE’s ambition for South African teachers to compete internationally (Global Teacher Prize, AU Teacher Prize, Commonwealth Education Awards) and to sustain career-long excellence, as recognised by the National Best Teacher Award and the Kader Asmal Lifetime Achievement Award categories. Cross-cutting priorities such as social cohesion, safety and wellbeing are not standalone categories but embedded in the general criteria and in all categories. For instance, race relations/social cohesion; teenage pregnancy; HIV/AIDS; substance abuse; bullying; and gangsterism are most explicitly incorporated in the Life Skills category, matching the Minister's repeated emphasis on urgent response to GBV and rising teenage pregnancy within school communities”.