More than 7,000 Grade R teachers aren't qualified for positions

As the department of basic education (DBE) pushes ahead with the Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Bill, it has admitted that more than 7,000 Grade R teachers across South Africa are not qualified to teach the grade.

- Oratile Mashilo

This revelation came during a basic education parliamentary committee meeting yesterday.

According to the department, 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, North West had the fewest unqualified Grade R teachers, just two, followed by Mpumalanga.