Task team to probe EC districts
Transformation plan fails to improve matric results
THE Eastern Cape department of education will investigate why districts such as Port Elizabeth which are known for producing good matric results, continue to perform badly.
Despite the department developing a transformation plan, many districts in the province continue to perform dismally.
The PE district alone has been on a downward spiral since 2014 when the pass rate went from 82% to 74% in 2015. It dropped further in 2016 to 64%.
Addressing a press conference this week, education head Ray Tywakadi said high-flying districts such as Port Elizabeth had traditionally kept the province up in terms of pass rate and that the drop had made a significant dent in the overall performance of the province.
He said schools which received a pass rate of between 90% to 100% in 2014, had dropped from 15% to just 8% “which means they lost big time … and this led to a shift in PE”.
He said that while northern areas schools in the metro had continued to perform well, the variations caused by peri-urban and rural schools led to a “substantive instability that impacted even the northern areas schools”.
“As the department we take the blame. Things were placed at the doorstep of the department to do, [but] weren’t done.”
He said the department would go to the schools where pass rates had dropped significantly, to look at what the problems were.
The performance of the PE district is not the only thorn in the side of the education department.
The country’s worst performing districts are all from the Eastern Cape, and include Dutywa which achieved a 49.59% pass rate, Libode 47.9%, Ngcobo 47.2% and Lusikisiki at 44.7%.
Although Lady Frere performed better at 49.5% compared to its 46.3% pass rate in 2015, it is still a far cry from its pass rate of 63.9% in 2014.
The MEC for education Mandla Makupula said the department was in the process of reducing the number of districts in the province from 23 to 12 – a move they believe would bring about a significant difference.
“This year, a school had four kids in its Grade 12 class, and another eight. If one pupil fails, [this means] 75% have passed, and there’s a 25% failure rate. If two pupils fail, it’s a 50% fail.”
Both the MEC and Tywakadi said the department would focus on rationalising and realigning small and unviable schools.
“The process of rationalising and realigning is not just a programme, but a strategic imperative because that’s where the biggest failure lies.
“Over the next three years, we’ll look at dealing with the systemic challenges to remedy the situation.”