Bhisho MPL delegation to visit province’s best and worst schools
THE province’s worst and best performing schools in the 2017 National Senior Certificate exams will be visited by members of the Bhisho legislature over the next two weeks.
MPLs who sit on the education portfolio committee will be visiting schools in the Amathole district, the worst performing district in the province, and schools in Nelson Mandela Bay, which was flagged as the best performing district.
The Amathole district obtained a less than 60% pass rate, while Nelson Mandela Bay came out tops with a 72.6% pass rate, followed by Sarah Baartman at 71.8% and OR Tambo Inland at 69.3%.
The school visits form part of the committee’s annual programme in January when schools reopen.
Committee members are dispatched to schools across the province to receive first-hand information on the challenges encountered and validate the information received from education officials.
The visits will take place from Wednesday when schools open, until January 26.
Acting general manager in the office of the secretary of the legislature, Nombulelo Mosana, said the committee would identify challenges and difficulties experienced by the schools and make recommendations and possible solutions.
“The recommendations made will be tabled and adopted to House Resolutions by the House in March. For the 2018 programme, the teams will again visit the schools visited during the 2017 programme to assess the extent of the implementation of House Resolutions and impact.”
Mosana said the committee, which consists of eight groups, would be visiting the best performing schools in each district to learn best practices that could be emulated by other schools. Committee chairman Fundile Gade said they were hoping to find a teacher in front of all pupils, with textbooks delivered.
“We do not expect any late admission problems. If that happens, it means there is a crisis. Also, we expect the department to have appointed teachers following the bulletins advertised late last year,” Gade said.