Lesufi said the Gauteng Department of Education is faced with political, enrolment and societal challenges, but that is yet to change. “The department of education will not tolerate non-performing educators. We will also restructure the system so that principals are not appointed by friends, but because they have integrity and are qualified for the job.”
Lesufi stressed that in the new South Africa, all pupils must have access to resources and good educators. He said it is unacceptable that the best educators in South Africa teach fewer pupils in certain schools, while rural and township schools have mediocre teaching. “I want schools in the township and suburbs to fall under one school governing body so the schools can share resources,”said Lesufi.
Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga briefly joined the meeting and addressed the educators on the results. She told educators that she was deeply saddened when she saw the Grade 9 ANA results. Grade 9 pupils were the worst in maths with an average of 10.8 percent. She said, “We need radical intervention. Grade 9 results, in particular, are a titanic of failure, this is a crisis for us as a country. These results give pupils and teachers an indication of where the pupils are and it is dismal.”
Motshekga expressed that the Grade 9 results are a deficit of what the pupils brought all the way from their early grades. “There is nothing wrong with our tools and curriculum. My assumption is that the problem lies in the area of learning and teaching.”
She stated that the results show that interventions in Grade 7, 8 and 9 are not helping.
Motshekga pointed out that the school year is very short and too quick. It does not give pupils enough time to grasp what they are being taught, especially in maths and science.
A teacher at R.W Fick Secondary in Bosmont, Charity Mhlanga, said the results help gauge what the pupils grasped during the year. “It will take great commitment from educators and pupils to improve ANA results for next year.”
Gauteng Department of education will effect the following changes, and many more, next year:
- The department will invest R600 million to upgrade and expand best performing schools in the province
- Best performing schools, especially rural and township schools with a 100% matric pass, will be be rewarded with ICT learning material
- In the next five years, the department will elevate and resource Gauteng township schools to an ‘acceptable’ level
- Head of departments in schools have the power to request that non-performing principals and absent educators be removed
- Beginning of next year, seven township schools will receive ICT material.
