Exploring educator's perceptions of the challenges affecting grade one learners' academic performance in two low socio-economic schools

INTRODUCTION One of the major challenges in a democratic South Africa is equalising resources and opportunities; since these were unfairly distributed by the apartheid government (pre 1994)1. Poverty in South Africa is the most visible product of the apartheid regime, as it affects many communities1. At the time of this study, Stats SA1, the national poverty levels were reported at 57.2% in 2006 and 56.8% in 2009, with a strong association between increased levels of education and decreased levels of poverty. According to Olivier, Wood and De Lange2, the Western Cape has the lowest proportion of its population (32%) living below the poverty line in South Africa. However many learners in the Western Cape are still trapped in poverty. Inadequate education is a manifestation of poverty2 where there is a poor orientation towards school and learning; low achievement; school backlogs; juvenile crime and violence; physical, sexual and substance abuse; and early school leaving2. Schools within low socio-economic communities in South Africa still find it challenging today to cope with the realities of poverty in addition to the critical challenges of transformation in the post-apartheid era2. Some of the challenges that schools in these communities are faced with include lack of resources (material and human), lack of parental involvement, illiterate community members and language difficulties. This decreases the effectiveness of support systems which learners need to excel in their academic performances. In the Western Cape, isiXhosa, English and Afrikaans are the three languages used as first languages by the overwhelming Exploring educator’s perceptions of the challenges affecting grade one learners’ academic performance in two low socio-economic schools