Four urgent interventions Angie Motshekga can implement to make mathematics teachers more effective
08 December 2014
The DA calls on the Minister of Basic Education, Ms Angie Motshekga, to adopt the following four urgent steps to fix the crisis, exposed by the most recent Annual National Assessment results, in our education system.
The Minister said in her speech to present the 2014 ANA results that mathematics training for 20 000 Heads of Department and teachers is expected to be conducted in the first term of 2015, with the focus on Grades 7, 8 and 9.
While we welcome this, it is not enough.
The DA strongly recommends that the following four be steps be added to the Minster's action plan:
1. Every teacher who teaches mathematics must write the Annual National Assessments completed by the children they teach, and at least one Grade higher than what they are teaching. This must include teachers active in every phase of schooling. A diagnostic report, determining the areas of concern, must be produced based on the results of the tests written.
We cannot accept that a child will score poorly in Mathematics in Grade 7, 8 or 9 purely based on the teaching they receive in those grades alone. Our view is that the poor teaching that most of our children have received BEFORE these grades catches up with them in later grades. The problem is then compounded by what the Minister termed "teachers' apparent lack of requisite academic level in Mathematics to teach Grade 9 mathematics".
In addition, a recent research report by Dr Nick Taylor found that most new teachers graduating from university are not properly equipped to teach, both with respect to subject knowledge and with respect to their ability to effectively convey the knowledge they do have. Dr Taylor noted, too, that every primary school teacher will teach Maths at some stage, and that only those who have specialised in the subject will have received any training.
Important, also, is the need to measure the impact of any training and interventions carried out with our teacher cohort. Therefore measurement of their competence before training commences is very important as this will allow such determination to be made.
2. Subject advisors, employed at district offices, who are required to assist with the improvement of the teaching of mathematics in our schools, must be similarly tested and trained, as must every official, at every level, who is involved in the mathematics curriculum, in every relevant government department at every level. Officials, for example, who are responsible for curriculum design or for training programme design must write the tests.
3. Testing must be carried out after every intervention that is designed to improve skills. The before and after results must be compared, and the necessary action taken if no improvement is evident.
4. The entire process must be transparent, with the public informed of the results in the same way as it is made aware of the results of testing the children. No individual teacher will be named, but South Africans deserve to understand the extent of the problem, in order to be part of the urgency of rectification.
Competent teachers will not be compromised by the testing. Teachers who require development can be identified and receive precisely the assistance each requires.
This initiative would be entirely positive, and aimed solely at ensuring that our children receive the learning experience they deserve.
Statement issued by Annette Lovemore, DA Shadow Minister of Basic Education, December 8 2014
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