Unqualified EC teachers fail pupils

Almost 3,000 teachers in the Eastern Cape are teaching subjects for which they are not qualified – with Buffalo City schools playing host to more than 307 of them.

Provincially, 260 teachers in the province are not qualified to teach at all.

This is according to education MEC Mandla Makupula who was responding to parliamentary questions from DA MPL Edmund van Vuuren.

The province’s 51,545 teachers comprise of 2,727 teachers in grades 10 to 12 across the province who are teaching subjects they are not qualified to teach, while 264 are not qualified to teach at all.

The three most prevalent subjects unqualified teachers are instructing in include languages (997 teachers), maths (546) and science (437).

Nelson Mandela Bay teaching district ranked fourth out of 12 for the most teachers – 253- not qualified to teach their subjects. It is preceded by O R Tambo Inland with 256, Buffalo City in second and Alfred Nzo West at the top with 310 teachers.

Van Vuuren described the response he received in August as irresponsible and completely unacceptable.

“The blame cannot be placed on the unqualified teachers though. Many of these teachers work tirelessly and do the best that they can for learners, but are placed in positions by the department to teach subjects they are simply not qualified to teach.”