Retired SA teachers called back

JOHANNESBURG – An initiative to employ retired teachers and principals to address underperforming schools will be rolled out in Gauteng as soon as possible, education MEC Barbara Creecy said yesterday.

Addressing a seminar in Midrand, Creecy said problems in education needed to be urgently addressed.
“We have to start by asking those before us what they think we must do,” said Creecy.
She said while 12 million children were in schools and almost 100 per cent of children attended primary school, pupils’ performance was not improving fast enough.
She said retired teachers could help on a voluntary basis as substitutes so that the current teachers could undergo essential training.
Between 1994 and 2009, of all the Grade 3 pupils in Gauteng tested, less than 30 per cent could read and write and just over 40 per cent could do basic maths.
Of the pupils in Grade 6, less than 40 per cent were capable in basic maths.
“Just over 50 per cent of children are literate after six years of schooling,” Creecy emphasised.
– Nampa-Sapa

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