Statement by André Gaum, Western Cape Education Minister

My department has decided not to use Cuban teachers to assist in the areas of Mathematics and Science training for teachers.

This is a decision that the National Department left the provinces to make. I believe that we are one of two provinces that chose not to make use of the Cuban teachers.

We decided against this for the following reasons:

• The WCED has just launched the Cape Teaching Institute that will focus on the skills of teachers and specifically look at teacher training in the areas of Mathematics and Science. We believe that this initiative will redress many of the imbalances experienced by teachers from the previously disadvantaged groups.



• We believe that many teachers in the rural areas will experience language problems with the Cuban trainers as these teachers are largely Afrikaans speaking. We believe that this will seriously hamper any training done for these teachers.

My department is taking a number of initiatives to improve the mathematics and science results of learners and the teaching capacity of teachers. We believe that these initiatives will yield the results we require.