Holding back pupils ‘a complex issue’

12/03/2015 Statician general Pali Lehohla make a presentation on the Education Series 1 2013 results at St Georges Hotel. Picture: Phill Magakoe

12/03/2015 Statician general Pali Lehohla make a presentation on the Education Series 1 2013 results at St Georges Hotel. Picture: Phill Magakoe

Published Mar 13, 2015

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Pretoria - Schools are holding back pupils who are not likely to do well in matric in a phenomenon statistician-general Pali Lehohla said might influence the pass rate.

Releasing a report in Centurion on Thursday on the state of education in Limpopo, Lehohla said by the time pupils are in Grade 9, four or more out of 10 pupils are at least two years older than their classmates.

Lehohla said: “Schools hold back kids and this is a very interesting and complex policy issue.

“When schools realise kids are not going to do well in matric, they hold them back until they are sure they will pass matric.”

He said holding back the pupils might have an impact on the final matric pass rate.

“When you look at how people progress into university and employment, it shows that we need to address the issue with all we have. Schools already hold back the kids before matric,” he said.

Last year Limpopo achieved a 73 percent pass rate.

“The 73 percent is already a reduced base. If the students had progressed (from Grade 11) then the pass rate would have been lower.”

Of the 154 351 pupils who started Grade 1 in 2002 only 53.4 percent of them wrote matric in 2013 and only 9 percent passed maths.

Lehohla emphasised that the problem was not only in Limpopo, but in all provinces.

Lehohla said government was trying to widen access to education by offering no-fee paying schools and feeding schemes, but this was not enough.

The data shows that at 91 percent, Limpopo has the highest percentage of pupils in no-fee paying schools. Ninety-four percent of the schools in Limpopo also offer feeding schemes.

“When circumstances are supportive to education, learners do better. We need to address stuff that matters like teachers being in class on time and ensuring they have good environments at home,” he said.

Lehohla said schools run by female managers and with access to resources achieved higher pass rates. But only a few of the schools in the province are run by female managers. About 31 percent of all the schools in the province are run by female managers and 60 percent of all teachers are female.

Lehohla said the issue of non-delivery of textbooks in Limpopo in 2012 was caused by “political noise”.

In 2002, 13.7 million pupils in Limpopo did not have textbooks.

In 2011, only 3.6 million pupils did not have access to books. The furore on the non-delivery of textbooks erupted in 2012 when the number shot up to 11.8 million.

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