Officials on means of improving KZN pass rate

The province has seen a 9% drop from 69.7% in 2014 to 60.7% while the national pass rate dropped 5% from 76.8% to 70.7%. 

Briefing the media on the sidelines of the ceremony in Durban to celebrate the province's top performers - Sadtu Provincial Secretary Nomarashiya Caluza said they're disappointed with the results. 

Caluza says there are numerous systemic factors both at a national and provincial level which need to be addressed. 

"The fact that we are contributing 25% to the overall cohort of learners it tells you that there is a special attention that needs to be focused to KZN. 

"As a rural province we have exodus of qualified educators from rural schools to the well placed schools, which then disadvantages the learners from those communities," he said.

NATU spokesperson Allen Thompson says the multiple curriculum change has made matters worse. The education curriculum in the country has changed at least five times in a space of 15 years.

""All these changes in the curriculum require educators to be well-trained so that they master the concept. Teachers are being forced to go and teach a curriculum that they have not properly grasped," he said. 

Thompson has encouraged that teachers be given more support. 

"Teachers are on their own. Everyone is expecting  a teacher to teach a learner but nobody is expecting a learner to learn. Nobody is expecting a parent to provide support to the teachers, monitor and cause learners to learn. That's the problem we're face with in our system," he said. 

ANC Provincial Chairperson Sihle Zikalala agrees that urgent action needs to be taken.

"This includes ensuring that the managers, especially the principals, are quite serious about their work and where there is no performance, those principals must be removed straight away. The second is that there must be stability in the department. 

The department at a provincial level, in districts and in each and every school. There must be stability. Thirdly, students must study and be assisted with extra classes. We must also support them," he said.

The party says while the 9 % decline is a concern, they are encouraged that 98 761 learners out of 162 658 who sat for the NSC examinations have passed. 

While other political parties say they're not at all surprised by KwaZulu-Natal's dismal showing in the 2015 matric results. 

DA Education Spokesperson, Mbali Ntuli says they believe it's time for the ANC to fire Education MEC Peggy Nkonyeni after the province's pass rate declined a whopping 9% from the 2014 rate. 

Ntuli says political will is now needed.

"Many of the steps are actually quite easy and administrative. We need to have better assurances of who our teacher are, how often they are in classes and whether or not subject advisors to help especially towards rural areas are actually doing that, she said.   

The IFP's Narend Singh says it's time to go back to basics.

"What is absolutely essential as far as the IFP is concerned is that one must not look at the top but one needs to see whether the basic education, from Grade R phase, is in place at all our schools throughout the province. That is sadly lacking in terms of infrastructure and support from that particular level," he said.  

AfriForum's Deputy CEO, Alana Bailey says they believe the key to success is mother tongue instruction.

"One of the important factors especially in rural communities, is that children should have access to mother language education for a longer term to master the abstract sciences like Maths and Science," she said. 

(File photo: Gallo Images)