Weaker pupils miss out on coaching lessons

I FAIL to understand what the word “improve” means. The dictionary says improve means to make/do something better than before, but at school it is definitely the opposite.

I am currently doing Grade 12 and I have seen many pupils dropping out of school, not because they hate school or have no dreams, but because good education in South Africa, especially in the Eastern Cape, is only for the born genius pupils. The Eastern Cape pass rate will never improve, because the improvement programmes do not reach the pupils who need to improve.

I’m sorry to say that the minister of basic education can bring the best programmes in the world, but as long as they do not reach those who really need them they are useless. The only pupils who attend these programmes are the A pupils, people who are already getting more than 90%.

The ones who are still struggling to even get 40% a minimum requirement have to improve themselves. How can you pick up the child who can walk and leave the one who is failing even to crawl?

What can we do, because that’s how our teachers think things should be? I cannot only blame teachers for taking the A pupils to the programmes, but also the people who run these programmes.

They set high percentage requirements for pupils to enter their programmes. Why can’t they just take the pupils with the lowest percentages and improve them to get better marks?

In other programmes you have to write a test and the ones who pass can attend.

Why can’t they take the ones who failed the test and improve them so that they can pass? Education has failed me.

I have always dreamed of becoming a doctor. Because I was not good at physical sciences and the only pupils who attended the physics improvement programmes were the A pupils, I had to say goodbye to my dream, my calling and the only thing that made me look forward to the next day.

Nwabisa Hawu, Port Elizabeth