Parents, teachers to blame

Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga has put the blame for bad performance at primary schools squarely on parents and teachers.

Speaking while visiting three schools in Tembisa, in Ekurhuleni, Gauteng, Motshekga said teachers were not focused on teaching and parents were not interested in their children's education.

She said parents could not decide in which language they wanted their children to be taught.

"At first, parents insisted that their children be taught in English and that is why the results were bad.

"When results got bad, they accepted that kids in the foundation phase needed to be taught in the mother-tongue."

Motshekga visited the schools following the completion of the annual national assessment of pupil performance. The results were said to be "disappointing".

She said schools should focus on using the assessment results to improve their teaching strategies.

"We want these schools to do what we have been preaching. They have to use time adequately, focus on their teaching methods, share resources, support each other and work closely with the parents."

Motshekga said teachers were drowned in study materials but there was no direction on how to use them.

"Teachers are spoilt for choice. As a result, there is no coherence.

"It is not only about materials, but also the way they are handled."

Motshekga said she had visited the provinces to get a sense of how the results of the annual national assessment had been interpreted by schools.

"What has changed is that they are all focused, but what is not impressive is that their improvement strategies are not informed by what is in the scripts," she said.

"There is a big disjuncture between what they are doing and what they are supposed to be doing."

In February, more than six million pupils in Grades 1 to 6 wrote the first annual national assessment tests in languages (home language and first additional language) and maths.

The assessment is intended to establish a national benchmark from which the Department of Basic Education can measure literacy and numeracy in primary schools.