Staff Reporter
The Free State Department of Education has set targets that should be met by learners starting from Grade 1 as the province seeks to consolidate its position as the best performing province in the country.
Education MEC Tate Makgoe, in his budget vote speech delivered at Mohaladitwe Secondary School in Phuthaditjhaba on Thursday, said set targets are aimed at encouraging learners to excel in their studies from an early stage.
According to the Provincial Strategy on Learner Attainment for 2021 which he announced, the targets are:
- Grades 1-3: 100 percent pass rate with an average pass of 75 percent;
- Grades 4-7: 95 percent pass rate with an average pass of 70 percent;
- Grades 8-9: 85 percent pass rate with an average pass of 65 percent;
- Grades 10-11: 85 percent pass rate with 35 percent Bachelor pass;
- Grade 12: 90 percent pass rate with 50 percent Bachelor pass.
“Primary schooling remains our priority,” said Makgoe when he presented his R15.5 billion budget.
“One of the challenges that we have is there is no national benchmark that tests our learners between Grade 4 and Grade 7.
“Therefore, we are setting ourselves targets so that we can work with teachers and everybody to improve performance especially at this level.”
The MEC said over the past year, technical teams were established to assist teachers on how to approach their work better and achieve improved outcomes.
“(The technical teams) trained 359 Grades 1-3 teachers on strategies that learners can use in order to read with understanding,” he said.
“We provided Grades 4-7 language and mathematics teachers with the following resources on a monthly basis: reading and writing; homework activities; formal assessment exemplars; trackers to guide with the pacing of and implementation of trimmed annual teaching plans and informal mathematics tests per topic to foster conceptual understanding.
“For secondary schooling, the department trained 310 Grades 8-12 language teachers on content and methodology.
“These trainings focussed on identified underperforming secondary schools.”
Makgoe said last year, all Grade 12 learners were provided with various resources including: revision packs, materials for learners with comorbidities, mind the gap study guidelines, study guides and IBP videos containing memo discussions and revision lessons.
These initiatives are expected to continue this year.
The MEC said the incoming School Governing Bodies (SGB) have been encouraged to establish academic councils so that their work is not limited to dealing with school finances.
“We have advised the SGBs that each and every one of them must have an academic council,” Makgoe said.
“This academic council will look at the pass rate and the challenges in all the grades.
“The SGB must not just come to discuss the finance and governance issues.
“They must also discuss the core business of a school, which is education – learning and teaching.”
He pointed out that even learners in Grades 1-3 must be closely supported so that they all pass.
Makgoe said this is a new way of looking at the academic system and ensuring the best outcomes from the learners.
Last year, the Free State recorded an 85.1 percent pass rate, the highest in the country.
This was the fifth time the province came out tops in the country since 2013.
In the last five years, the province came first for a record four times since the introduction of the repackaged and strengthened curriculum called CAPS.
In another first, the province exceeded its target of 40 percent Bachelor passes and 40.4 percent.
Overall, 71.7 percent of the class of 2020 qualified for entry to Diploma and Bachelor studies.