Kids' lives 'being wrecked by unqualified teachers'

Every day tens of thousands of schoolchildren are being taught by teachers who aren't qualified to do the job.

The result is that pupils are "not receiving the quality of teaching they're supposed to get," the SA Democratic Teachers' Union has said.

And with mathematics and the sciences the subjects hardest hit, education authorities say the solution might have to come from outside South Africa's borders.

Responding to a question by the DA in parliament, the national Education Department recently admitted that 5,139 teachers - the vast majority of them in rural KwaZulu-Natal - are either unqualified or underqualified.

Although this was an improvement on 2014 (6,719 teachers) and 2015 (6,030 teachers), the department said it was "worrying".

There are, shows a 2016 statistical study released by the Education Department, about 435,000 teachers in the country.

Responding to the DA, the department revealed that in 2016:

• KwaZulu-Natal had 2,875 unqualified or underqualified teachers, 57% of the total number of such teachers in the country;
• The Northern Cape had 400 unqualified or underqualified teachers; and
• Limpopo had 15 unqualified or underqualified teachers.

"The subjects most affected include mathematics, sciences and technology at all levels, and African-language teaching, particularly at foundation phase," the department said.

"The focus of the department, at a national level, is to address the supply of educators through initiatives. These include the Funza Lushaka Bursary Scheme, which focuses on mathematics, sciences, technology and African languages, and the appointment of foreign educators qualified to teach scarce skills."

Ian Ollis, the newly appointed DA spokesman on education, said the implications were severe: "This means that every day teachers stand in front of a class without the necessary skills to teach the subject they teach. It is simply wrecking the futures of children who have to be taught by teachers who are not qualified," he said.

South African Democratic Teachers Union general secretary Mugwena Maluleke said the problem was not that teachers weren't qualified, it was that they were being made to teach the wrong subjects.

"The problem is now you [are] allocated the teacher," he said.

"You get teachers who are qualified to teach a subject and they are allocated to a different subject."

KwaZulu-Natal education department spokesman Muzi Mahlambi said one of the biggest problems was attracting teachers to rural areas.