Publications
Partners
Acting quickly to deal with the lack of discipline in schools, including teachers coming late to work, are some of the strategies employed by Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi to achieve good results.
Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga revealed at the matric results announcement event held at Vodacom World in Midrand on Thursday that, excluding progressed pupils, Gauteng attained an 89% pass rate, an improvement of 3% from the 86% achieved in 2017 – making it the top province in the country.
Gauteng was still the top province even with progressed pupils included, attaining an 87.9% pass rate, an improvement of 2.8% from 85.1% achieved in 2017.
Speaking to City Press at the Gauteng matric results announcement at Unisa in Pretoria on Friday, Lesufi said stabilising education in Gauteng was greatly owing to dealing with problems while they were still fresh.
Lesufi said showing leadership by calling teacher unions into emergency committees set up to deal with issues ensured the smooth execution of plans. He urged other MECs to follow suit.
“Just solve the problem [as soon as possible]. Don’t wait for the problem to be tough, it will take long to solve that problem. I was running around like a headless chicken. If a problem is not attacked while it is still fresh, when it gets old it gets difficult to resolve. If one school has a problem, resolve that problem immediately,” Lesufi said.
He said township schools contributed a lot to the results because of the dedication and commitment showed by teachers, pupils and district officials.
“People were tired that they were being ridiculed. They needed somebody to channel them to a proper direction and I think we’ve done it. And they must maintain it. We need to see many township schools doing well,” he said.
Gauteng Premier David Makhura shared similar views during his address at the event, calling Gauteng teachers “top dogs”.
Makhura said only good teachers were found in Gauteng and there was no space for bad teachers.
He said everything begins and ends with good leadership, pointing out that there were good principals that steered the ship towards the right direction.
Lesufi said last year’s results were a confirmation that township education had turned the corner. He cited Tiisetso Molata, who passed matric at PJ Simelane High School in Dobsonville, as the best example. Molata received an award for being the top pupil in maths and also received a prestigious award form the MEC’s office.
Lesufi said it was the first time since 1994 that a township pupil achieved such an award.
He said introducing information and communications technologies (ICT) in township schools played a major role in the improvement of results.
“Remember, all our Grade 12 classes are on the ICT platform; our Grade 11 classes are on the ICT platform; and now we are dealing with our Grade 10 classes. This outstanding performance can be attributed to our investment in the improvement of township education. We are really closing the gap between the rich and the poor,” Lesufi said.
He said the number of township schools that achieved 90% pass rate had increased.
According to Gauteng education department spokesperson Steve Mabona, this year, about 250 schools achieved above 95% pass rate, of which 108 schools achieved 100%. Ten township schools achieved 100% pass rate last year.
About 41 township schools achieved above 95% pass and this indicated a significant upward movement from the 25 schools that achieved above 95% in 2017.
Mabona said the department made significant strides in closing the gap between schools serving poor communities, specifically township schools, and those with a strong middle-class component, as shown by the narrowing gap in the performance by fee-paying and no-fee schools.
In 2009, township schools achieved an average pass rate of 60.1%, with fee-paying schools achieving 84.2% – a gap of 24.1 percentage points.
By last year the gap had been reduced to 4.6 percentage points compared with 12.3% in 2017.
Lesufi said both school systems achieved better results, with township schools achieving a pass rate of 84.74% compared with 79.13% in 2017, while non-township schools achieved 91.3% from 91.43% in 2017.
