Science teacher shock for SA
2010-05-03 21:37
Michael Hamlyn, I-Net Bridge
Cape Town - A reply on Monday to a Democratic Alliance parliamentary question revealed that more than 1 700 South African science teachers are not qualified to teach the subject.
According to the party, this means that at least 50 000 learners are not receiving teaching from qualified educators.
Wilmot James, the party spokesperson on higher education and training said on Monday that science education in South African high schools is generally in a very poor state.
"The 2009 matriculation results had an extraordinary 60% of all scholars who wrote the physical science examination receiving a mark of less than 40%," James said, "failing therefore, by any decent standard of assessment."
James claimed that the Western Cape is a shining light among provinces.
Teacher performance monitors
It is, he pointed out, one of the provinces that has the lowest number of under-qualified teachers.
"This is a figure that will be further reduced through our emphasis on performance management of educators," he said.
"The DA in the Western Cape cabinet has also already drafted a bill to give our provincial government greater powers to conduct school inspections and to directly assess teacher performance in the classroom.
"These are the measures that we are implementing to see real, tangible improvement in the quality of science tuition in the Western Cape.
"Our Western Cape administration will also be establishing four science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) centres of excellence.
"This will include the expansion and improvement of the Cape Academy in Tokai and Centre of Science and Technology in Khayelitsha and two additional facilities, serving previously disadvantaged learners.
"These centres will offer world-class tuition in STEM and related subjects; thus not relegating learners to rely solely on possibly under-qualified educators."