Education roles in South Africa are unusual in that many of their duties are written down formally rather than left to the employer. The Personnel Administrative Measures set out core duties for educators in public schools, SACE registration governs who may teach, and assistant posts created under national employment initiatives come with their own defined scope. This hub groups every education role covered on Duties.co.za.
Each role links to a dedicated page with full duties, daily tasks and CV wording. Use this page to find the right guide, then read the detail there. For the framework behind all workplace roles, see the parent job duties guide.
Browse Education Job Duties by Role
Browse by the position you hold in the school or institution. Assistant and support titles in particular are used very differently between provinces and programmes.
Teaching Roles
Teaching duties cover planning, delivery, assessment and record keeping, plus the pastoral and extramural responsibilities attached to the post.
- Teacher duties and responsibilities
- Educator duties and responsibilities
- Class Teacher duties and responsibilities
- Preschool Teacher duties and responsibilities
- Student Teacher duties and responsibilities
- Teacher According to the PAM Document duties and responsibilities
- Lecturer duties and responsibilities
Teaching Assistance and Classroom Support
Assistant roles support a qualified educator and do not carry independent teaching responsibility. Duties usually include classroom preparation, small-group support, administrative help and supervision under a teacher’s direction.
- Education Assistant duties and responsibilities
- Reading Champion duties and responsibilities
- Teaching Assistant duties and responsibilities
- Assistant Teacher in a Primary School duties and responsibilities
- PYEI Education Assistant duties and responsibilities
- Peer Educator duties and responsibilities
- Facilitator duties and responsibilities
Tutoring
School Leadership and Management
School management posts carry duties for curriculum delivery, staff supervision, governance and departmental reporting alongside a reduced teaching load.
- School Principal duties and responsibilities
- Deputy Principal duties and responsibilities
- Principal duties and responsibilities
- Departmental Head duties and responsibilities
- HOD in a Primary School duties and responsibilities
Common Duties Across Education Roles
From assistant to principal, the same accountabilities appear in nearly every education job description.
- Learner safety and supervision: accounting for learners in your care, during class and during break, movement and extramural periods.
- Preparation: having lessons, materials, resources or the classroom ready before the period starts.
- Assessment and record keeping: marking, recording marks, keeping attendance registers and maintaining learner records accurately.
- Curriculum delivery: working to the prescribed curriculum, pace setter or programme rather than to personal preference.
- Communication: reporting learner progress and concerns to parents, colleagues and school management.
- Professional conduct: observing the code of conduct that applies to the post, and safeguarding learner wellbeing.
How Duties Change by Seniority and Workplace
Qualification and Registration Set the Scope
The clearest line in this cluster is between assistant and educator. An education assistant supports learning under a teacher’s direction; a registered educator carries the teaching responsibility, the assessment decisions and the professional accountability that goes with them. An assistant should not be left to teach a class unsupervised, and a job description should not imply otherwise.
Post Level Adds Management Duties
Moving from educator to departmental head to deputy principal to principal progressively trades teaching time for curriculum management, staff supervision, governance and administration. In public schools these post levels and their core duties are formally described, which makes them a better reference than a school-written job description.
Phase and Setting Change the Routine
Foundation phase teaching is heavily focused on literacy, numeracy and classroom routine. High school teaching is subject-specialised and assessment-heavy. A lecturer works to a different academic cycle again, and a private tutor works one to one without any of the institutional administration. Read the role page alongside your phase and setting.
Popular Role Guides
- Teacher duties and responsibilities: lesson planning, delivery, assessment, records and pastoral responsibilities.
- Education Assistant duties and responsibilities: classroom support, small-group work, admin support and supervision under a teacher.
- School Principal duties and responsibilities: school leadership, staff management, governance and departmental reporting.
- Tutor duties and responsibilities: assessment of need, session planning, progress tracking and parent feedback.
- Reading Champion duties and responsibilities: reading support, small-group literacy activities and progress recording.
Duties for CVs
Education CVs are read for phase, subject, class size and evidence of learner progress. Name the grade and phase, the subjects, and the number of learners you were responsible for. Use the duties for a CV guide for the method, then adapt wording like this.
- Taught Grade 4 to Grade 6 Mathematics to five classes of 38 learners, planning and assessing to the prescribed curriculum.
- Supported a foundation phase teacher with small-group reading for 12 learners identified as needing intervention.
- Maintained attendance registers, mark sheets and learner profiles for a class of 42 with no audit findings.
- Coordinated a departmental subject team of six educators, moderating assessments and tracking curriculum coverage.
Job Description and Employer Guidance
An education job description should state the post level, the phase and subjects, the registration required, and who the role reports to. For assistant and support posts it is equally important to state what the role may not do, particularly around unsupervised teaching, assessment decisions and discipline, since those boundaries protect both the assistant and the school.
Use the job description duties and responsibilities guide for structure, then take role content from the pages above. Where a post is governed by departmental measures or professional registration, those sources take precedence over any general guide on this site.
Related Work Areas
- Admin and office duties: for school administrator, school clerk and school receptionist roles.
- Healthcare and care duties: for care and support roles that overlap with school assistance.
- Management and leadership duties: for the general management accountabilities behind school leadership posts.
- Job duties: the parent guide to duties, responsibilities and job descriptions.
How to Use These Duties Guides
Find your post above and read the role page in full. If your exact title is not listed, choose the closest role by post level and by whether you carry teaching responsibility. Assistant titles vary considerably between programmes, so match on scope rather than on the name of the post.
Duties vary by school, phase, province and programme. Where a post is covered by departmental personnel measures, a programme contract or professional registration, confirm the detail against that source before relying on it.
Last reviewed: 1 September 2026