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Durban – Primary school maths teachers should be made to write the same national assessments as their pupils, and should score at least 90 percent to demonstrate that they have the knowledge needed to teach the subject, Stellenbosch University education researcher Nic Spaull says.
Addressing a teachers’ union conference in Gauteng at the weekend, Spaull argued that the aim of such proficiency testing would not be to demean teachers, but to identify who needed help and with what.
Despite billions spent on teacher training, a large proportion of maths teachers had not mastered the basics, he said.
“Teachers cannot teach what they do not know,” Spaull said, adding that a possible solution was to set a minimum proficiency benchmark. He was speaking at the leadership conference of the National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa (Naptosa).
Maths teachers would have to achieve at least 90 percent in the Annual National Assessments for the grade they taught, and 70 percent in the Grade 9 assessments.
Those teachers who did not make the grade should be enrolled in training as a matter of urgency and be reassessed again afterwards.
Spaull emphasised that the aim of such assessments should not be for punitive purposes, but to increase the capacity and dignity of teachers.
Citing analyses of data from previous studies, Spaull told the conference that the average South African Grade 6 teacher was not as well equipped to teach maths as his peers in eight other African countries.
Worse, the average South African Grade 6 teacher demonstrated poorer levels of content knowledge than Grade 8 pupils from countries such as Korea and Singapore.
“High quality teachers in South Africa are in the minority and are highly unequally distributed,” Spaull said.
Given that it was now widely accepted that a significant number of maths teachers could not, for example, calculate percentages or interpret graphs, there needed to be a national discussion on what needed to be done to identify who these teachers were and what could be done to remedy the situation.
The head of Naptosa in Gauteng, Tinus du Preez, said the union had taken a position that was in favour of competency assessments because, while it had a duty to its members, it balanced this with the right of children to receive quality education.
leanne.jansen@inl.co.za
The Mercury
