100% pass rate for 27 Cape schools

Cape Town 081024. Bishops College has cancelled its valledictory service for today(24 Okt) and all other matric farewell functions after a spate of vandalism to school property by a group of matriculants. Picture Henk Kruger/Weekend Argus/Reporter Zara Nicholson

Cape Town 081024. Bishops College has cancelled its valledictory service for today(24 Okt) and all other matric farewell functions after a spate of vandalism to school property by a group of matriculants. Picture Henk Kruger/Weekend Argus/Reporter Zara Nicholson

Published Jan 9, 2015

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Cape Town - Twenty-seven Western Cape schools, including two for pupils with special education needs, have achieved a 100 percent matric pass rate for five consecutive years.

The Western Cape had the second-highest number of schools in this category and was second to Gauteng, with 28 schools, according to the Department of Basic Education’s National Senior Certificate Examination Schools Performance Report.

The 27 schools are Bishops, Bloemhof Girls’ High, Boland Landbouskool, Bonnievale High, Cannons Creek, CBC St John’s Parklands, Constantia Waldorf School, Heidelberg High, Herschel Girls’ School, La Rochelle, Lutzville High, Natural Learning Academy, Oakdale Landbouskool, Paarl Girls’ High, Parklands College, Pioneer School, Porterville High, Rhenish Girls’ High, Rondebosch Boys’ High, Rustenburg Girls’ High, Sans Souci Girls’ High, Springfield Convent, Star International High School, Sunningdale School, Valsbaai High, Vista Nova High and Westerford High.

Apart from one quintile 4 school, all of the schools on the list are either independent schools, quintile 5 schools or special needs schools.

Schools are divided into five categories with the wealthiest in quintile 5 and the poorest in quintile 1.

Jessica Shelver, spokeswoman for Education MEC Debbie Schäfer, said only one quintile 3 school in the country, Meadowsweet Combined in KwaZulu-Natal, had achieved a 100 percent pass rate last year.

“Since the DA took over from the ANC in the Western Cape in 2009, we have increased the senior certificate pass percentage in the province by almost 10 percent in quintiles 1 to 3, as well as almost doubling the number of bachelor passes in all three quintiles.”

The quintile 1 pass rate has increased from 57.6 percent in 2009 to 66.5 percent in 2014; over the same period the quintile 2 pass rate increased from 55.8 percent to 68.6 percent, while the quintile 3 pass rate increased from 57.5 percent to 71.3 percent.

She said the number of underperforming schools (schools with a pass rate below 60 percent) in these quintiles had also decreased from 47 in 2009 to 21 last year.

“Thanks to this approach and the hard work of our teachers, principals and learners at these schools, our schools in quintiles 1 to 3 have shown the greatest improvement over the past five years, while also improving retention rates.”

But Jonavon Rustin, provincial secretary of the SA Democratic Teachers Union, said the fact that there were no quintile 1 to 3 schools on the list showed that resources played a big role in the performance of schools. “Quintile 5 schools have smaller classes and size does matter.”

He said the selection of pupils who attend quintile 5 schools also played a role, with many of these schools selecting only the “high performers” from primary schools.

“One has to commend those high schools that do not have this requirement and do well anyway.”

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Cape Argus

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