SLINDILE MALULEKA
Education in the country is in a “crisis” and the alarming drop-out rate in high schools and trouble at tertiary level can be attributed to a failure to get the basics right in the first few years of a child’s education.
That was the hard-hitting assessment from Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga on Thursday.
Motshekga, who was attending the 93rd annual general conference of the National Teachers’ Union (Natu) in Empangeni, also said South Africa has the highest proportion of pupils repeating grades of any Southern African Developing Community (SADC) country.
She said the country has a 10 percent grade repeat rate, while the SADC average was 5 percent. Internationally, the repeat rate was only 1 percent.
Next year, the department will launch a project to address the numeracy and literacy problems experienced by pupils in the vital foundation phase – Grade R to 3.
Motshekga feels that pupils need to get the basics right at the lower grades.
“If pupils do not understand work in the foundation phase, they are bound to have problems in the higher grades which could lead to dropping out. What we are experiencing in South African education is a crisis,” she said.
Motshekga said pupils are failing in higher education institutions because the problem began in the lower grades.
“Most pupils stay in schools until Grade 10. We lose almost 30 percent of pupils between Grade 10 and 12. If there is no proper curriculum coverage, the pupil’s foundation phase years are bound to have a deficit,” she said.
Motshekga said some of the problems picked up from Annual National Assessments (ANA) results that were written for the first time in February this year showed that pupils could not read or write.
She said the ANA results were proof that “too little” learning was happening in many schools and the rate at which most pupils developed cognitively was very low.
In the national average performance in ANA, Grade 3 pupils scored 35 percent in literacy and 28 percent in numeracy. In Grade 6, the average performance in languages was 28 percent and 30 percent in mathematics.
The results also showed that pupils lacked basic vocabulary and failed to follow simple instructions.
“Like fill in the missing word or tick the correct answer. By Grade 3 up to Grade 6, many pupils could not write properly and legibly. Pupils displayed a serious lack of fundamental literacy skills across all grades but more so from Grade 4 to Grade 6. They could not subtract, multiply or divide,” said Motshekga.
She said there were instances where written outputs from pupils who were already in Grade 6 could hardly be expected from pupils in Grade 1.
“If some of the skills that a pupil should have acquired in the lower grades have not been acquired at that level, it would be too late for the pupil to cover it at a later stage,” she said.
A recent study by the department showed that teachers were spending 41 percent of the time teaching in the classroom.
“Teachers must teach at least seven hours a day. Teachers must use every hour to protect teaching time. Teachers should also be on time in the classroom,” Motshekga said.