Realogile High School principal Joe Mashitoa has described the 2014 matric results of his school as ‘bad and pathetic’.
The school remained at the tail-end of the performance stakes of Alexandra schools with a 59.3 percent pass rate, which he said was dismally lower than the national standard of 75 percent and attributed the achievement to a variety of reasons, primary of which was the slack management experienced since the death of former principal Dumisani Mbatha.
Mashitoa, who was seconded from the Johannesburg East District to take over from acting principal Dingaan Kubheka in July, said he too did not have enough time to sensitise both teachers and pupils. “The major spade work should have been done by the time I came in, which was already into the second half of the year,” Mashitoa said.
He also partly blamed the introduction of the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (Caps) which he said also played its own role in bringing down the pass rate of the school. Both teachers and pupils initially battled with new concepts introduced to the various subjects, he added.
Mashitoa lamented the lack of parental involvement in the education of the children at Realogile and said this had a ripple effect on the pupils as most of them either bunked school, came late and never did did or completed their homework.
If parents are not closely involved in the school, they cannot monitor the completion of homework and study and cannot also deal effectively with absenteeism, Mashitoa said. Another element he said contributed to the poor performance was the promotion of pupils who had failed Grade 11.
On the way forward, Mashitoa said the school needed to develop an academic performance improvement plan which he said should place more emphasis on the Grade 12s and also complement other programmes such as Sips [school improvement programme support], where pupils are allowed to attend school on weekends and holidays.
Mashitoa said Realogile was blessed with enough good, experienced and qualified teachers who can deliver the much-needed goods if only there can be a strong partnership between the teachers, pupils and parents.
Realogile had 171 candidates who sat for the matric examinations, 98 of them passed with 26 bachelors, 46 diplomas and 26 National Higher Certificates, while 68 failed.
