Bid to get tough on poor results
PRETORIA: President Jacob Zuma has suggested that there should be consequences for school teachers and principals who continue to produce some of the lowest pass rates despite government support.
“As you heard (in the introduction by Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga), I never went to a certain school. No teacher can claim they ever saw my forehead in class, because I never went to any.
“But when I hear of schools that produce zero-percent pass rates, I ask myself what they were doing from January to November, really,” Zuma said in an address to the Basic Education sector lekgotla in Pretoria yesterday.
“Every day standing (they are) in front of the kids, but what were they doing really? That is why I’m saying that at least there must be some consequences if I’m a teacher but no single child passes. The teacher has been working and getting paid, but it means they have been paid for doing nothing, really. That’s why I’m saying there must be consequences if that happens.”
The education summit is being attended by senior government officials in the sector, including Motshekga, her deputy Enver Surty, all education MECs and heads of department from across South Africa, district directors and other stakeholders.
Zuma appealed to the players in the education sector to wage a war against the dropout of pupils from the education system.
“Importantly, as stakeholders, I urge you to work together to stem the tide of drop-outs from schools. Our own analysis shows that only less than 50% of all the learners who joined our education system reach matriculation level after 12 years of learning,” said Zuma.
He said there were numerous reasons fuelling the prevalence, relating to socio-economic challenges and other social ills.
“Whether it is financial reasons, abuse of drugs or other social challenges, we need to tackle them together. We must keep our youth in school.
“We collectively call upon all sectors of society to play their meaningful roles to keep our youth in school. That is one of the key issues that this lekgotla will be looking into,” he said.
Zuma also urged parents to closely monitor and be actively involved in their children’s education.
“In this regard, I call upon all parents, who are able to do so, to read to their children and to also encourage them to read. Let us not allow television to take away the time of our children to read.
“Parents should control the time spent by children watching television so that it does not affect their school work,” he said.