Pretoria - As schools in the inland provinces open today, 2 500 newly qualified teachers will be joining the system this year.
"These teachers, who are newly qualified in Languages, Mathematics, Accounting and Physical Science, will be placed in areas with the most need," Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said.
She added that for schools to succeed, the department needed qualified teachers for each class, subject and phase.
An amount of R566 million has also been set aside across all provinces for the training of teachers to prepare them for the implementation of the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) document, and for workbooks to strengthen Literacy and Numeracy teaching in Grades 1 to 6. The training is expected to start this month.
Motshekga also pointed out that the department had made great strides to ensure success in five key areas, including workbooks, CAPS, introduction of First Additional Language (FAL), Learning and Teaching Support Material (LTSM) and Annual National Assessments (ANA) for Grades 3, 6 and 9.
The department has established a call centre for schools experiencing challenges in the delivery of workbooks. The number is 086 136 3600.
Motshekga said the distribution of workbooks, which has already started, will continue until the end of January.
The workbooks are designed to assist learners in mastering the skills required for quality literacy and numeracy development. "All literacy and numeracy workbooks for Grades 1 to 6, in all 11 languages, are being delivered to schools in order to strengthen these foundational skills of learning.
"We will distribute them with due consideration of the number of learners in every school, the administrative issues, available storage capacity and the recent natural disasters/floods that may have caused migration of learners in certain areas," she explained.
Motshekga said the CAPS process was in full swing for finalisation and full implementation in 2012.
"The Foundation Phase CAPS and FET CAPS have been finalised and will be submitted to publishers incrementally at the end of this week in order that they can develop textbooks."
A team of experts has also been appointed to version CAPS in all languages and the department is expected to publish CAPS by next month.
Once finalised and gazetted, Motshekga said CAPS will be printed and distributed to all teachers in the system. Teacher training will also take place in 2011.
The department will also be rolling out a massive examination, ANA, this year. ANA is to be written next month in all public schools, and will provide the department with information on the actual levels of literacy and numeracy performance across the system.
The assessments will be followed by a rigorous analysis by March 2011 and between July and November this year, the department will be engaging in an elaborate process to make interventions where necessary.
Motshekga acknowledged that not every learner will have a textbook by day one of schooling - a challenge confronted the department with provincial departments.
She said the department was moving towards a centralised procurement of textbooks in the coming years.
"One of the goals of the Action Plan 2014 is to ensure that every learner has a textbook for every subject they have registered for. Provinces have given us information about their challenges to achieve 100 percent coverage of LTSM in their schools.
"The Eastern Cape has informed us that only about 70 percent of their learners will have a book in front of them when they re-open next week, while Gauteng has confirmed that every learner will have a textbook by tomorrow [Wednesday]."
