Retaining scarce skills teachers in a South African rural community: an exploration of associated issues

Muremela, Grace; Kutame, Azwidohwi Philip; Kapueja, Ingrid; Adigun, Olufemi Timothy

doi:10.1080/14725843.2021.1965864

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Although education is considered useful for national development in Africa, working conditions of teachers, particularly in rural schools, have not improved much (Adedeji & Olaniyan, 2022;du Plessis & Mestry, 2019). Muremela, Kutame, Kapueja & Adigun (2021) note that a high learner-teacher ratio in countries like Uganda (58:1 to 81:1) and Malawi (77:1) is one of the greatest challenges facing rural school teachers owing to the scarcity of teachers in African rural schools. This is worsened by the problem of heavy teaching work-loads accompanied by excessive administrative duties while salaries and working conditions are relatively poor (Shikalepo, 2020).…”

Section: Challenges Teachers Face When Teaching In Rural Schoolsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenges teachers face in teaching Grade 12 business studies in rural schools

Ngwenya

Mtshali

Myende

2023

IJRBS

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This study aims to examine challenges teachers often face when teaching Grade 12 Business Studies in schools situated at the rural Umbumbulu circuit of Umlazi district, in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. A qualitative research methodology was used to explore challenges that teachers encountered when teaching Grade 12 Business Studies. A purposive sample of five Grade 12 teachers was selected from five rural secondary schools that offered Business Studies as a curriculum subject in the Umbumbulu circuit. The need to elicit lived experiences of a few Grade 12 Business Studies teachers in rural schools in ways that could relate to challenges encountered by teachers inspired the choice of case study research design. Face-to-face, semi-structured interviews were used to generate data that was analysed through thematic analysis as a method of analysing qualitative data. The study found that in teaching Grade 12 Business Studies in rural schools, teachers had to face a number of challenges such as the unavailability of updated textbook publications, the language of learning and teaching and learner absenteeism, and late arrival at school. The study raises awareness of challenges Grade 12 Business Studies teachers in rural schools may face in teaching the subject so that teachers in emerging economies can think of ways to strengthen their resilience against these challenges and maximize their teaching potential.

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Section: Challenges Teachers Face When Teaching In Rural Schoolsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenges teachers face in teaching Grade 12 business studies in rural schools

Ngwenya

Mtshali

Myende

2023

IJRBS

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“…These may be classified as either scarce (i.e. skills in demand) or critical skills at a given time (Grobler et al, 2020; Muremela et al, 2021). Table 1 shows the scarce skills in South Africa's agriculture sector and skills gaps in the commercial and smallholder sub-sectors.…”

Section: Effects Of Drought On Agricultural Skills In South Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

Drought's implications on agricultural skills in South Africa

et al. 2022

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Drought is an inevitable feature of South Africa's climate. Its slow onset and recurrence threaten livelihoods dependent on agriculture. Responses to drought have mostly been ex-post impact management with little ex-ante resilience building in vulnerable areas. Implementation of ex-ante strategies has been severely challenged by lack of skilled human capital to predict and respond timely and effectively to the impacts of drought, particularly in smallholder farming areas. Human capital development, should therefore, be prioritised as a key drought management strategy. In this regard, it is important to determine farmers and agricultural professionals’ current and future needs for capacity development in drought management. This is important given that drought is projected to increase risks and introduce new ones with far more devastating impacts on agriculture. The current review outlines the implications of drought on agricultural skills in South Africa and the way forward.

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“…Certain schools were left without scarce skills teachers who were responsible for teaching gateway subjects such as Mathematics and Science. Despite the efforts made by the Department of Basic Education and other stakeholders to increase the number of experienced teachers with scarce skills, South Africa is still far from achieving this desired outcome (Muremela et al, 2021). This resulted in an increase of teaching workload for the few remaining teachers in some schools and junior teachers entering the field of education.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Facilitation of practical work in Natural Sciences: experiences and approaches of junior teachers

Sikhosana,

Mogale

2024

F1000Res

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Background This paper explored junior teachers’ experiences and approaches when facilitating practical work in Natural Sciences during teaching and learning. Grade 7 is the final year of primary school in South Africa, with students between the ages of 11 to 13. The researchers observed that there are enormous challenges encountered by junior grade 7 teachers when preparing, designing and conducting practical work in Natural Sciences teaching and learning. Methods A qualitative multiple case study design was used. Three grade 7 Natural Sciences junior level teachers were selected purposively as participants. Data was collected through classroom observations, semi-structured interviews and document analysis. Results The findings of this study revealed that some grade 7 junior Natural Sciences teachers were overwhelmed when facilitating practical work during teaching and learning. In addition, some of the grade 7 junior Natural Sciences teachers were unable to maintain discipline inside and outside the classroom environment when conducting practical work and demonstrations. The grade 7 junior Natural Sciences teachers had to use mechanism to cope with the demands associated with facilitation of practical work in Natural Sciences teaching and learning. Some of the approaches adopted by the grade 7 junior Natural Sciences teachers when facilitating practical work in Natural Sciences teaching and learning included group work, observations, demonstration, illustrations, projects and inquiry-based scientific investigations. Conclusion It is recommended that teachers be professionally trained on how to facilitate practical work to advance the new ways of teaching and learning as advocated by per the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement document while empowering them with pedagogical content knowledge to enable them to achieve the aim and objectives of practical work in Natural Sciences teaching and learning.

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Retaining scarce skills teachers in a South African rural community: an exploration of associated issues

Cited by 6 publications

References 12 publications

Challenges teachers face in teaching Grade 12 business studies in rural schools

Challenges teachers face in teaching Grade 12 business studies in rural schools

Drought's implications on agricultural skills in South Africa

Facilitation of practical work in Natural Sciences: experiences and approaches of junior teachers

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