- New research shows a Bachelor of Education degree has lower entrance requirements than other courses.
- Such students perform poorly in Mathematics, compared to students in other degree programmes.
- Younger teachers have better subject content knowledge than teachers trained during apartheid.
Entrance requirements for the Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) degree are lower than for other degrees - and most students have low-performance rates in matric Mathematics.
The Teacher Demographics Policy report, by Stellenbosch University's Research on Socioeconomic Policy Unit, found that students who enrol for B.Ed perform poorly in matric Mathematics, compared to students who enrol in other degree programmes.
The researcher, Irene Pampallis, said the data used linked matric performance and university enrolment for students from the 2008 to 2015 matric cohorts. It found that those who enrolled in B.Ed degrees achieved an adjusted average of 41% for Mathematics in matric, compared with 54% for students in other degree programmes.
These figures are based on a composite Mathematics mark for all matriculants, which converts Mathematical Literacy marks into Mathematics-equivalent marks, so that all matriculants can be compared on the same scale, Pampallis said.
Pampallis said a similar trend could be seen in other subjects, although to a smaller degree.
She said:
Universities which produce the most teachers are Unisa, the University of Zululand, North-West University, UKZN, and the University of Pretoria.
"It is clear that prospective teachers generally have similar academic results to other degree candidates, but they are less likely to take Mathematics, as opposed to Mathematical Literacy, and their Mathematics results are far weaker.
"It is particularly alarming to note that at Unisa, which trains far more teachers than any other university, only 10% of incoming B.Ed students in the years 2014 to 2016 took Mathematics in matric and passed with at least 50%."
She also found that the entry requirements for a B.Ed were "on the lower end of the spectrum" when compared to other courses.
The B.Ed is among the few degrees that do not require a minimum mark for Mathematics or Mathematical Literacy at many universities.
Although Unisa has started changing this policy.
Pampallis said:
"Strong Mathematics skills are vital for teachers, but we are unlikely to attract stronger mathematicians into teaching without improving the standard of matric results overall. Mathematics is essential for all foundation phase teachers, as well as teachers who teach mathematical, commercial or scientific subjects in other grades. Furthermore, all teachers require at least basic mathematical skills for assessing their learners."
Despite lower entrance requirements, researchers Nic Spaull and Peter Courtney found that younger teachers have more subject knowledge than older teachers.
They said younger teachers replacing older teachers could improve learning outcomes.
"Although there are many dimensions to effective teaching, which include training, materials, accountability and support, at a base level, a teacher cannot teach that which they do not know. It is clear that older teachers that were educated and trained under apartheid have lower levels of content knowledge than their younger colleagues who were trained at universities post-apartheid."
The trend is more pronounced in teaching Mathematics.
"While this is no fault of their own, there is some South African research evidence showing that learners learn more when their teachers have higher levels of content knowledge, suggesting that the retirement of older teachers may lead to an improvement in learning outcomes in the coming years, other things being equal."