{"id":55644,"date":"2023-10-27T16:13:38","date_gmt":"2023-10-27T16:13:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/government-lays-the-blame-for-south-africas-maths-and-literacy-crisis"},"modified":"2023-10-27T16:42:16","modified_gmt":"2023-10-27T16:42:16","slug":"government-lays-the-blame-for-south-africas-maths-and-literacy-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/government-lays-the-blame-for-south-africas-maths-and-literacy-crisis","title":{"rendered":"Government lays the blame for South Africa\u2019s maths and literacy crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>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.<\/p>\n

However, the Department of Basic Education has denounced the report, saying that it missed a fundamental problem with education in South Africa \u2013 the wide use of English presents language barriers for both teachers and learners.<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 early childhood development, basic education, and higher education.<\/p>\n

The report noted there is a severe lack of suitably qualified teachers and a shortage of new high-quality teachers.<\/p>\n

The most significant challenge in the basic education system is teachers\u2019 lack of subject knowledge and skills to teach learners.<\/p>\n

80% of grade 6 Mathematics learners were taught by teachers with mathematics subject knowledge below the grade 6 level.<\/p>\n

Only 55% of South African teachers met the intermediate benchmark of Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) \u2013 which 82% of all grade 4 learners achieved internationally.<\/p>\n

Simply put, a large percentage of South African teachers lacked the basic knowledge of the subjects they taught.<\/p>\n

English is the problem<\/p>\n

Following the release of the report, the Department of Basic Education (DBE) said the findings were disappointing and misleading.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201c(The report) presents several proposals, utilising a desktop research methodology, well known for limitations of reliability, accuracy and relevance; and interviews from individuals termed \u2018brilliant and excellent\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, its diagnosis is in many respects inaccurate or one-sided, which weakens its standing and the validity of its proposals,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is curious that the report recommends \u2018more English\u2019 instead of acknowledging the negative long-term effects of focusing on English in the system of both Basic and Higher Education,\u201d the DBE added.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

However, representation of the country\u2019s other ten official language as the main medium of education is severely lacking.<\/p>\n

English is primarily used for its benefits as an international standard in education and as the lingua franca in 53 countries.<\/p>\n

Zulu and Xhosa are the dominant languages in South Africa, spoken by 15 million and 10 million people, respectively.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About South-Africa<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 \u2013 the wide use […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":55643,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[274,315,275],"class_list":["post-55644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"\nGovernment lays the blame for South Africa\u2019s maths and literacy crisis - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A recent report published by the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust on the future of education highlighted the severe lack of su ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/government-lays-the-blame-for-south-africas-maths-and-literacy-crisis\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Government lays the blame for South Africa\u2019s maths and literacy crisis\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A recent report published by the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust on the future of education highlighted the severe lack of su ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/government-lays-the-blame-for-south-africas-maths-and-literacy-crisis\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-10-27T16:13:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-10-27T16:42:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2023\/10\/sm_1698412277.622187.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"683\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/government-lays-the-blame-for-south-africas-maths-and-literacy-crisis#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/government-lays-the-blame-for-south-africas-maths-and-literacy-crisis\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Government lays the blame for South Africa\u2019s maths and literacy crisis\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-10-27T16:13:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-10-27T16:42:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/government-lays-the-blame-for-south-africas-maths-and-literacy-crisis\"},\"wordCount\":491,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/government-lays-the-blame-for-south-africas-maths-and-literacy-crisis#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2023\/10\/sm_1698412277.622187.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-South-Africa\",\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"economy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/government-lays-the-blame-for-south-africas-maths-and-literacy-crisis#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/government-lays-the-blame-for-south-africas-maths-and-literacy-crisis\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/government-lays-the-blame-for-south-africas-maths-and-literacy-crisis\",\"name\":\"Government lays the blame for South Africa\u2019s maths and literacy crisis - 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