| Sumario: | The sheer number of teachers required to cater for an unprecedented increase in enrolment in developing countries, and corresponding continuous professional development to improve teaching and learning, remain a major problem. Given this problem, I argue that traditional face-to-face training of teachers no longer suffices to manage imbalances in the supply of and demand for teachers in South Africa, and hence the need for open and distance learning. I further argue that the allocation of resources to higher education institutions for teacher training using distance education within South Africa, if not reviewed, will constrain the quality and capacity of institutions to respond adequately to future teacher shortages. I conclude that the discourse on teacher supply and demand should be tempered with awareness of the looming crisis of teacher retention that is always at the periphery of the planning of, and discourse on teacher provision in the country.
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