The Citizen reports that the Department of Basic Education (DBE) has admitted that more than 7,000 grade R teachers across SA are not qualified to teach the grade.

This revelation came during a Basic Education parliamentary committee meeting on Tuesday. According to the DBE, there are 25,944 qualified Grade R teachers in the system. However, when adding unqualified practitioners, 22% of all Grade R teachers are not suitably equipped to educate pupils in this critical foundation phase. KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) recorded the highest number of unqualified Grade R teachers with 1,937, followed by the Western Cape with 1,416. The department also noted that KZN still has 198 schools without Grade R classes. In contrast, the North West had the fewest unqualified grade R teachers, just two, followed by Mpumalanga. The DBE has been conducting oversight visits as part of the Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Act implementation and has uncovered several systemic issues. These included outdated or incomplete admissions policies at many schools. “School learner admissions policies have not yet been amended to include provisions of the amended South African Schools Act,” said the DBE.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Oratile Mashilo at The Citizen

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