Africa-Press – South-Africa. A recent report published by the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust on the future of education highlighted the severe lack of suitably qualified teachers in South African schools.
However, the Department of Basic Education has denounced the report, saying that it missed a fundamental problem with education in South Africa – the wide use of English presents language barriers for both teachers and learners.
The Oppenheimer report was commissioned to understand key challenges and prioritise opportunities in the South African education system. It focused on the three sectors of education – early childhood development, basic education, and higher education.
The report noted there is a severe lack of suitably qualified teachers and a shortage of new high-quality teachers.
The most significant challenge in the basic education system is teachers’ lack of subject knowledge and skills to teach learners.
80% of grade 6 Mathematics learners were taught by teachers with mathematics subject knowledge below the grade 6 level.
Only 55% of South African teachers met the intermediate benchmark of Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) – which 82% of all grade 4 learners achieved internationally.
Simply put, a large percentage of South African teachers lacked the basic knowledge of the subjects they taught.
English is the problem
Following the release of the report, the Department of Basic Education (DBE) said the findings were disappointing and misleading.
The department said the report omitted a fundamental issue in South African education: that the wide use of English was a barrier to many teachers and learners. It also flagged other shortcomings.
“(The report) presents several proposals, utilising a desktop research methodology, well known for limitations of reliability, accuracy and relevance; and interviews from individuals termed ‘brilliant and excellent’.”
“However, its diagnosis is in many respects inaccurate or one-sided, which weakens its standing and the validity of its proposals,” it said.
“The weakness of this report, particularly with respect to the diagnosis of the problem in the Basic Education Sector, is the deliberate exclusion of the issue of language and how it impacts opportunities for learning for both teachers and learners,” it said.
“It is curious that the report recommends ‘more English’ instead of acknowledging the negative long-term effects of focusing on English in the system of both Basic and Higher Education,” the DBE added.
Despite English being the fifth-most spoken language in South Africa, with 5.4 million speakers, it is the main medium of education in the country. Afrikaans, spoken by 6.6 million people, is also used as the main medium in some schools in the country.
However, representation of the country’s other ten official language as the main medium of education is severely lacking.
English is primarily used for its benefits as an international standard in education and as the lingua franca in 53 countries.
Zulu and Xhosa are the dominant languages in South Africa, spoken by 15 million and 10 million people, respectively.
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