Abstract
Grade R is the year before learners in South Africa start formal schooling and has been part of the General Education Training Band (GET) since 1998. New efforts are being made to enable all five- to six-year-olds to attend a Grade R class. The nine provinces of South Africa approach this problem in different ways. Some of them, like Gauteng, try to establish Grade R classes at primary schools, but in the process seem to appoint many teachers with only minimum qualifications. This article reports on research requested by the Gauteng Department of Education about the school readiness of Grade R learners. The school readiness performance of 114 Grade R learners was measured by means of a standardized school readiness test. The results confirmed the worst fears of department officials: most of the participants were not school ready after attending a year in a Grade R class. The article concludes with some recommendations, among others that attention should be given to the qualifications of teachers and that parents should become more involved.
Highlights
After the 1994 first democratic elections in South Africa, the nine provinces in South Africa were each allowed to manage its departmental preschools in its own way
Most of the teachers appointed in Grade R classes only possess the minimum qualifications required for this specialized work
Former national Minister of Education Kadar Asmal wished Grade R to be compulsory for every five- to six-year-old child from 2010, enjoining the departments of education of the provinces to commit to the implementation of the preschool year as a priority in 2010; this target was later extended to 2014 by President Jacob Zuma (Zuma 2009)
Summary
After the 1994 first democratic elections in South Africa, the nine provinces in South Africa were each allowed to manage its departmental preschools in its own way. The Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) closed all preschools in 2001, and in recent years reopened Grade R classes at primary schools. Officials of the education department of South Africa’s most populous and economically most progressive province, Gauteng, became concerned about the fact that Grade R learners in preschool classes at primary schools in the province did not attain school readiness. Former national Minister of Education Kadar Asmal wished Grade R to be compulsory for every five- to six-year-old child from 2010, enjoining the departments of education of the provinces to commit to the implementation of the preschool year as a priority in 2010; this target was later extended to 2014 by President Jacob Zuma (Zuma 2009). Linguistic and cognitive readiness implies that a learner is able to understand the concepts used in the language of learning and teaching (LOLT) of the Foundation Phase
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