SA has a backlog of unqualified and untrained Maths and Science teachers, says a local expert in the wake of a damning report on education in those fields.
SA has a backlog of unqualified and untrained Maths and Science teachers, says a local expert in the wake of a damning report on education in those fields.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) report on the quality of Maths and Science education was released last week.
South Africa placed 146th, behind countries like Haiti, Lesotho, Chad, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, and Kenya, which are all thought to be less resourced.
Subject Advisor for Maths and Science in the Grahamstown Department of Education, Leo Goosen, said that the finding was from interviews and not from factual results, examination results or even in-depth questionnaires.
Goosen conceded however, that learners' performance in those two subjects is low in the country.
“We have a backlog of unqualified and untrained teachers in the field," Goosen told Grocott's Mail. "It’s very difficult to get [qualified]Maths teachers."
Goosen believes that Maths and Science are interrelated in one way or another but holds Maths as the crux of the sciences.
“Mathematics is the actual backbone of all sciences. It’s the language which most sciences are based on.
“You cannot do Physical Science or Life Sciences without Mathematics. It’s essential,” said Goosen.
Maths and Science teachers have been also been steadily leaving the teaching profession and there has been a very low input of new Maths and Science teachers into the system.
“We’re always struggling to find qualified teachers to teach the subjects and not many students take these subjects,” Goosen said.
At the South African Numeracy Chair in the Rhodes University Education Department, Prof Mellony Graven believes the report is not news.
“It tells us nothing we haven't already known for the past decade and so I do not find this helpful at all,” Graven said in an interview.
She believes that poor performance in Maths and Science starts from learners having less lesson time, poor teacher content knowledge, lack of homework, weakness of teacher support and in service development systems and speed of curriculum change.
“What needs to be remembered is that South Africa has two education systems operating," Graven said, "one for the wealthier [minority]population which is largely functional and scores favourably with other first world countries; and another
for the majority of our learners mostly from poor and economically disadvantaged backgrounds where many schools are dysfunctional."
She said the report was based on the majority and that the needs of the two systems are vastly different to address these challenges.
Graven also added to the accepted view about the need for the two subjects.
“[Maths and Science] provide foundational knowledge on which many professions and degrees build and they are gatekeepers for access to higher education," she said.
"Not providing learners access to these subjects in some schools means these options of study are automatically closed off."
The national education department has rubbished the report.
In a stinging statement released to the national media this week, the department argued that the WEF assessment did not reflect the ability of school learners but focused only on a weak departmental system.
