Soft Skills for Teachers, the Solution to Education Crisis

Studies have found that South African teachers do not have the skills needed for them to teach mathematics.
A recent study conducted by the Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality that sampled more than 400 Grade 6 mathematics teachers found that a staggering 46% of teachers could answer one of the multiple choice questions correctly.
Nic Spaull, a researcher at the Stellenbosch University also recently highlighted that South Africa’s education system is in dire straits and that there is no quality learning taking place in the classroom.
Spaull asserts that the education system has failed to put together the appropriate teacher in-service training that would have increased the content knowledge of the
Yet primary school educators play a vital role in the development of young people. They shape what children learn and experience during their early years. They shape children’s worldview and can determine their future success or failure in school, work and personal lives.
The way in which primary school educators introduce children to mathematics, language, science, and social studies, is the most critical. Educators at primary level generally teach all subjects and are generalist rather than specialist educators, as the primary curriculum is an integrated curriculum.

As a child focused organisation, with a responsibility to ensure quality education for children, World Vision has intervened to improve this situation.
In partnership with Rhodes University, World Vision facilitated the foundation phase numeracy and literacy training for more than 100 teachers from Eastern Cape and KwaZulu Natal primary schools.
According to World Vision’s KZN Cluster Leader, Xolile Mbi, the overall aim is to empower teachers with people skills that involve a cluster of personal qualities, habits, attitudes and social graces that will enable them to transfer mathematics and science foundation skills, at the same time make them compatible to work with the learners.
Ms Zonke Mhlongo, a principal and a teacher at Skeyi Primary school- in KwaZulu Natal, is one of the trained teachers. She says her career will never be the same again.
“I never received this kind of training from the teacher’s college, and yet it is the most relevant and applicable, given the circumstances under which we work,” she said. Adding that she wishes every teacher can receive such training.
Through this training teachers have been empowered to navigate the needs of learners. The department of Education has welcomed this initiative.
“One of the missing links we have identified in our teachers is their ability to use oral and written communication skills (more especially math language), every day to effectively pass on information to learners,” said Lungelo Mthatyana- Maluti District Director.
The trained teachers have the task of taking information back to their colleagues, and the education department has promised to ensure the sustainability of this initiative.