Durban - “Poor performance in matric does not start in Grade 12. Unless we look at the challenges in the foundation and senior phase, then we won’t improve our matric result.”
This was one of the frank statements made by the KZN Department of Education’s Enoch Nzama in Durban on Wednesday. He was presenting the department’s provisional academic improvement plan during the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) provincial education indaba, where stakeholders met to discuss the state of education, its challenges and to map a way forward on their analysis of the 2014 matric results.
KZN obtained a 69.7% pass rate, a decline from 77.4% in 2013. This was the steepest decline of all the provinces.
Nzama conceded that the department had failed in meeting some of its mandate, such as the filling of vacant posts and ensuring that teachers knew the content they were required to teach.
“We did very badly compared with other provinces across all the phases. Our annual national assessment results were especially bad and we obtained only 10.8% in mathematics in Grade 9,” he said.
Officials have been given a deadline of the end of March to fill numerous posts, which include subject advisers familiar with curriculum assessment policy statements.
“There’s a school in Msinga which has not managed to achieve a 50% pass rate in matric for the past 10 years, and part of the problem is the lack of teacher support. There are not enough subject advisers to service the schools,” he said.
He could not say how many posts had been filled since January but in July last year, the department had 2 194 vacant posts.
Improving the quality of newly graduated teachers and regularly developing experienced ones was part of the plan.
While the department was frank about its shortcomings, Sadtu’s provincial secretary Nomarashiya Caluza would not let teachers off lightly.
“We have a responsibility to get to classrooms on time, prepared and ready to work. I also want to stress that it embarrasses us as a union and professionals to get reports about teachers having sexual relationships with learners. These ‘relationships’ affect the performance of both the child and the teacher.”
She said in some schools male teachers impregnated pupils, resulting in increased drop-outs and absenteeism.
“One of our contributions to the academic improvement plan is that the department must stop taking teachers out of classrooms for workshops. There must be a better way of conducting teacher development programmes ” she said.
The Mercury