Pretoria - Gauteng Education MEC, Matome Chiloane, has vowed that there would be “consequences” for underperforming schools in the province that received less than 65% in the latest matric exam results.
Chiloane said that on a positive note, just over 94.1% of schools had performed above the nationally defined benchmark.
In the 2021 National Senior Certificate exams, the number of schools that performed above the benchmark stood at 92.6%.
Chiloane said although there had been an improvement in the number of schools that performed well, the province needed to urgently attend to schools that consistently performed below par.
“The issue of under-performing schools must be resolved urgently; 53% of public and independent schools achieved less than 65% as compared with 69% in 2021.
“I’ve also said that there would be consequences where performance is not satisfactory.”
Although the City of Tshwane shone brightly in this year’s results, with three city schools picked as the best performers in the province, eight schools reportedly underperformed.
They include Hans Kekana Secondary School, Lethamoga High School, Semphato Secondary school, Eersterust Secondary school and Amogelang Secondary school.
As a result, the MEC said in the next few days the Education Department would meet school management teams of all public schools that performed below 65%, and make them account for their poor performance.
“For effective learning to take place, we have to ensure that classrooms are fully functional and we must continue to demand accountability for results, particularly for chronically failing schools.
The purpose is not to punish the school management, teachers and learners.
The aim is to provide the right combination of incentives, support and resources, that will accelerate the changes needed to improve the quality of education in those schools,” Chiloane said.
To this effect, Chiloane said the department would meet the public schools to kickstart a review of the various school management and teaching personnel.
Following that, a rapid school evaluation would also be undertaken and an academic improvement plan designed and implemented.
In addition to that, he said he had requested the head of the department to deal with under-performing schools, as the policy direction of merging and twinning of schools was primarily driven to address the problem of poor governance and management, which contributed negatively to learner performance and success.
Furthermore, the Education Department would also undertake, in the next few days, a detailed school-by-school analysis.
This was to identify subjects where schools were continually performing poorly, and to remove those teachers who could not meet the challenges, and support those having challenges in some of the topics in the curriculum,” th MEC said.
“It is for this reason that we are going to accelerate interventions in these under-performing schools to ensure the future success of all learners.
“We are taking action in schools,” Chiloane said.
The secondary school intervention programme will be reviewed for greater impact.
“Districts will begin working on poorly performing schools immediately.”
In fact, Chiloane indicated that the department would expand the focus of its secondary school intervention programme to include maths in Grades 9 and 10.
To top it all off, Chiloane said they would put in a concerted effort to support all pupils who had not made it.
This will be done through their Second Chance Programme, to assist the pupils to complete their national senior certificate.
Chiloane said through the programme the department would assist learners with subjects that they failed to ensure they complete the requirements for passing.
This would be done by providing support for supplementary exams.
Thos sitting for the exams in June will receive support in the form of printed and tutoring resources among other things.
Pretoria News