Report reveals top secrets of SA’s best state schools
● Pupils at one of South Africa’s top-performing schools report their teachers to the principal if they don’t pitch up for class on time.
The class captain records details of a teacher’s absence or late-coming in a period register which is handed to the headmaster.
However, instead of being furious with pupils for “ratting” them out, teachers at the quintile 2 school welcome the accountability measure.
(The quintile system categorises government schools into categories: quintile 1 schools are the poorest, while those in quintile 5 are at the other end of the spectrum in terms of income, unemployment and illiteracy within the catchment area.)
The school’s best practices are highlighted in a report on well-functioning schools compiled by the Department of Basic Education’s national education evaluation and development unit.
Released last month, the study follows a similar investigation by then education minister Naledi Pandor in 2007 that looked at schools in quintiles 2 to 4 that performed well in the matric exams.
The latest investigation, commissioned by Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga, was to determine whether characteristics of schools that work remain the same or whether “new insights have been learnt”.
The research was aimed at determining the key features of high schools that perform well. None of the schools was named in the report.
The criteria used to select the 111 schools in the study included a matric pass rate of more than 95% over the four-year period 2012 to 2015. The schools had to have more than 100 candidates sitting for the 2016 matric exams and their performance in maths and science as well as the number of distinctions produced were taken into account.
Researchers found that one of the most common characteristics of the high-performing schools was the effective use of teaching time.
“Managing teaching time tightly to make every minute count is a prevalent practice in all high-performing schools. To do this, school management teams tighten up their monitoring systems to ensure teachers use time within the day and across the year efficiently and effectively,” the report stated.
This is in stark contrast to teacher conduct at many other schools across South Africa, where class time is used to attend workshops, teacher union meetings and memorial services.
A teacher quoted in the report said: “Pupils must be at school until the very last day. On the last day, we will teach four periods — so there’s nothing like us missing time at the end or playing on the field or watching movies. We teach up to the end.”
Among the best practices researchers identified at the top schools were:
Teacher commitment and dedication; ● A capable teaching force, including ● properly qualified teachers;
Positive teacher/pupil attitude; ● Rewarding and incentivising pupils; and ● Awareness of pupil wellbeing, including ● teachers taking the initiative to understand their learning challenges. Pupil wellbeing involved teachers addressing learners by name and making an effort to understand them.
Said a quintile 4 teacher: “We have many orphans in our school. The school provides them with food through donations — most often from teachers. We also organise uniforms for them because our uniform is very expensive. We collect uniforms from the matriculants before they leave school and give them to learners in need.”
A pupil at a quintile 1 school told researchers: “Every matriculant at the school is assigned to a teacher who acts as his or her mentor. If he or she has a problem — social problems, personal problems, school problems, whatever the case may be — the teacher is always available to listen and lend a helping hand.”
A deputy principal of a quintile 3 school said: “The climate has to be right. That’s first and foremost. If it’s not right, then forget it. No best teacher in the world can be effective in an environment where there is no order and discipline.”
Examples of how order is maintained at top schools were:
Ensuring standards of behaviour are ● clear to staff, parents and pupils;
Praising and recognising positive and ● improved behaviour; and
Upholding agreed standards of appropriate ● behaviour in a fair and humane manner.
The study concluded that there were “no magic potions” to deliver improved learning outcomes.
“The schools that work focus on learning rather than just improving the national senior certificate exam results.”
It recommended that sharing successes should become an integral part of the work of an improving school.
It also recommended that schools foster a collaborative culture among teachers that puts the pupils’ learning first.
Pupils must be at school until the very last day. There’s nothing like us missing time at the end or playing on the field or watching movies. We teach up to the end