Cape Town – Brackenfell High School matrics proved their resilience, managing to obtain a 99.6% pass rate while writing their exams under intense scrutiny amid a racial storm.
The school saw an increase in their bachelor’s pass rate from 79.9% in 2019 to 84.4% in 2020.
Top performer Juane Visser obtained six distinctions and an 86.9% pass rate, Rohan Smith also received six distinctions achieving an 85.6% pass rate and Abigail Croucamp obtained an 85% pass rate.
School principal Jannie Muller said he was extremely proud of all the achievements.
“We had 12 A aggregates this year. Another special achievement is that 85% passed with admission to a degree. This is more than we had in 2019.
’’We had to navigate through Covid-19, teachers and learners had to quickly adapt to the new ways of teaching.
’’There is a system that we introduced prior to the pandemic where learners get a guardian teacher who supports them, this also came in handy. Parents also played a significant role,” said Visser.
The school was rocked by violent protests in November last year with parents, community members and political parties clashing. At the heart of the problem was a report of a whites-only matric masquerade ball that was held in October.
While the provincial Education Department cleared the school of wrongdoing following a probe, the South African Human Rights Commission is expected to release its own investigation into the matter this month.
Visser said when learners were due to write physical sciences they had to be relocated and write in a church due to tensions outside the school.
“We tried to keep the learners calm and encouraged their parents to allow them to attend so that they can write the subject. Although there has been a decline in physical sciences nationally, maybe the situation around our school also contributed to the drop of the subject in our school.
’’The rest of the other learners had to miss school that day and were forced to write two subjects in one day. So the Grade 12s had a lot of pressure,” he said.
Kerry Mauchline, spokesperson for provincial Education MEC Debbie Schäfer, said many schools faced challenges with protests last year, which were extremely disruptive to learners.
“Despite this, some of those schools still managed to maintain or improve their performance this year, and we congratulate them for their efforts.”
Cape Times