Despite South Africa’s high spending in education compared to other sub-Saharan countries, its education system is often criticized as ineffective as evidenced by poor student outcomes in both national and international assessments. This educational inefficiency is often linked to poor teacher quality, particularly in mathematics and science where some teachers are considered to have content knowledge below the level at which they are teaching. The researchers interviewed five primary school principals in KwaZulu-Natal on the training needs analysis methods they used to identify the training needs of foundation phase teachers. They all reported that they only used the Integrated Quality Management System template provided by the Department of Basic Education. However, they did not use it optimally due to a lack of comprehensive knowledge of how it should be implemented. In order to address this, it is recommended that principals should receive thorough training on the implementation of the Integrated Quality Management System, and that training needs analysis should be conducted on a quarterly basis rather than once a year. Keywords: integrated quality management system, professional development, training needs analysis, interpretive paradigm.

Despite many interventions that have been implemented to address the challenges in teaching reading, few successes have been achieved. This article explores teachers’ challenges in teaching reading to isiZulu Foundation Phase learners at rural schools in KwaZulu-Natal. A phenomenological research design in the qualitative domain was adopted. Seventeen participants were selected by purposeful sampling from two Foundation Phase schools. Data was generated through two focus-group discussions, of which the transcripts were analysed through interpretive phenomenological analysis. The findings indicated that teachers seemed to have different understandings regarding which initial skills should be taught to learners to prepare them to be proficient readers. Over-reliance on scripted lesson plans hinders teachers from applying the teaching strategies that can best accommodate all their learners’ learning needs and give them time to support those who lag behind. This study recommends that a reading skills analysis be conducted for each learner either weekly or fortnightly to enable teachers to know the learners’ shortfalls and be able to offer support before problems escalate.