Maths professor calls for teacher competency assessments
A maths professor says the country's poor
academic performance in maths and science can be tied to a lack of competent
teachers.
"South Africa is coming from an old order that did not prioritise education for the masses, and that created a shortage of people who were confident enough to become the teachers of this subject in future. That is why we are sitting where we are as a province," says the UKZN's Professor Sudan Hansraj.
Hansraj has been sharing his thoughts on the findings of the 2023 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study.
The report, which was released last week, revealed that South Africa's Grade 5 learners ranked last out of 59 countries in maths and science.
Grade 9 pupils also performed below the global average in both subjects.
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Hansraj says these results reflect on the quality of teaching.
He believes the issue can be addressed through competency assessments.
"We need to go for rigorous training programmes. This can even be online but at the end of it, the teachers must write tests to prove their competence. This will call for some cooperation with teacher unions, so that we can all first admit the problem and then work together in the best interest of society," he said.
"I believe there is nothing wrong with our curriculum. In fact, the DBE takes a lot of pride in benchmarking the curriculum against a number of first world systems. There can be nothing wrong with a learner. South African children are like any other child elsewhere in the world."
Hansraj also called for the re-installation of Annual National Assessments (ANA) to set benchmarks for student performance.
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