DA calls for review of teacher training and development

14 September 2016

New data released as part of the SACMEQ  IV report shows a serious decline in teacher performance in South African schools.

I have therefore written to Minister Angie Motshekga to request a full-scale review of teacher training and development in South Africa.

The SACMEQ IV report found that only 32.9% of Grade 6 teachers demonstrated “critical reading” skills, compared to 77.8% in the previous SACMEQ III report. SACMEQ IV saw a drop in teachers’ reading scores from 758 to 672, and a drop in mathematics from 764 to 757.

In the Portfolio Committee yesterday, a senior official from the Department of Basic Education Department (DBE) was extraordinarily candid about the state of teaching in some schools.

The DBE official said that the Department is not receiving the quality of teachers it needs. “Many education graduates from university have never been in a classroom,” he said. 

He added: "There was time when teaching was a noble profession. Now a significant number would walk out the class if given a chance."

The question is: if the Department recognises that the quality of teaching is a problem, what is it doing to address it?

There have been rumblings for some time about deficiencies with university teacher-training programmes. This is usually accompanied by calls to introduce dedicated teacher training colleges.

The time has come for the Minister of Basic Education, working with her counterpart in Higher Education, to review the quality of teacher training and development in our country. We need to know precisely what is going wrong with teaching education, and how this can be remedied.

There are many excellent teachers in our country who go beyond the call of duty to ensure our children receive the education they deserve. But the truth is that we cannot fix our school system if we don’t have enough dedicated and capable teachers.

We hope that Minister Motshekga will accede to our request and institute a full-scale review of teacher training and development without delay.

Issued by Gavin Davis, DA Shadow Minister of Basic Education, 14 September 2016