Not confident enough to teach primary school numeracy, maths teachers in the country have taken to bunking class instead, a study by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) has revealed.

The study found that principals did not consider their absenteeism to be a big deal, and that often teachers left their classrooms to attend trade union and Education Department meetings.

Noting the previous studies that showed that local pupils fared poorly when pitted against children from elsewhere on the African continent, it compared the maths performance of 5 500 Grade 6 pupils from Botswana and North West.

Source: The Star