Almost 3,000 teachers in the Eastern Cape are teaching subjects for which they are not qualified – with Nelson Mandela Bay schools playing host to more than 250 of them.
More than 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 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 in which unqualified teachers are instructing are languages (997 teachers), maths (546) and science (437).
The Bay teaching district ranked fourth out of 12 for the most teachers – 253 – not qualified to teach their subjects.
It is only below OR Tambo Inland with 256, Buffalo City with 307 and Alfred Nzo West at the top with 310.
Van Vuuren described the situation, after he received a response in August, as irresponsible and completely unacceptable.
“The blame cannot be placed on the unqualified teachers, though,” he said.
“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 not qualified to teach.
“The department has failed our children and our teachers, in its haste to simply fill vacancies, by not putting in the necessary effort to ensure that they appoint the right person to the advertised posts.”
In the space of two weeks during August, The Herald reported on thousands of pupils from Uitenhage’s Molly Blackburn and Kirkwood’s Moses Mabida high schools protesting about the shortage of teachers and the reshuffling of staff.
At the time, pupils said tutors’ and teachers’ providing lessons they were unqualified to give, left them “even more confused than when we walked into class”.
A Molly Blackburn teacher, who did not want to be named, said nothing much had changed but they were left with no options.
“It’s either we attempt to help these children by actually having a teacher in class as opposed to no teacher, or waste an entire hour of teaching time,” she said.
“At least we are able to provide some sort of guidance.
“We are just trying to do what we can with what we have. But the correct people should just be appointed in the right place in the first place, then we wouldn’t be sitting in this situation.”
Education expert Professor Susan van Rensburg said the department was doing the youth a disservice by continuing to keep up the charade of delivering equal education.
“It would take an incredibly dedicated teacher to teach a subject they are not qualified in, which is hardly the case,” Van Rensburg said.
“The children are the ones who suffer as a result, because of a ripple effect.
“They go on to tertiary institutions and can’t cope. It requires immediate intervention from the department.
“A simple solution to the problem would be to take elearning seriously.
“The staffing crisis could be assisted through providing quality and interactive online lessons,” she said.
Education department spokesman Malibongwe Mtima failed to respond to questions on how the misplaced teacher situation came about and what the department was planning to do to rectify it.