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A reply to a Democratic Alliance (DA) parliamentary question has revealed that 2 333 schools in the Eastern Cape have six teachers or less. On average, these schools have less than three teachers.

As a result, educators at these schools have to teach across a range of grades.
Across the country, a total of 6641 schools that have less than six teachers and more than 20 000 educators are likely to practice multi-grade teaching. In some instances, as many as four grades are taught in the same class.

The DA understands and accepts the current need for multi-grade classes (although mono-grade classes are clearly preferable). However, curriculum development and university training of teachers focuses solely on mono-grade teaching. Teachers are therefore ill-equipped to deal with teaching more than one grade in a class.

The Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, indicates that “the training and professional development of teachers in multi-grade teaching is a priority” and that “the Department of Basic Education has contracted the Centre for Multi-Grade Education at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) to training teachers in multi-grade teaching”.

However, the CPUT website shows that just 850 teachers completed a short course on multi-grade teaching in 2011, and 150 teachers have attended the course this year. Since 2009, 430 teachers have enrolled for the Advanced Certificate in Education specialising in multi-grade teaching. This leaves a current shortfall of approximately 18 700 multi-grade teachers who are still untrained.

According to CPUT, these schools form the most neglected part of the education system.This cannot continue.

Children in rural areas often face multiple challenges, including poverty, lack of transport and inadequate access to resources.

We have previously asked the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee for Basic Education to call on the Minister to come before the committee to explain how her department plans to do to address the education crises in the Eastern Cape. This is another example of how education is denied to children in the Eastern Cape and other provinces with large rural communities.

Minister Motshekga must display her commitment to ensuring quality education by addressing this problem in the interest of our rural children.