School increases pass rate by more than 20%
The learners and staff at Phagameng High School in Modimolle has reason to celebrate as their matric pass rate improved by an astounding 22%.
Their results increased from 61,8% to an impressive 84,4% after a year of incredibly hard work and new approaches to their challenges.
“I joined the school in 2021 and we worked really hard, but that year the 207 matric learners only achieved a pass rate of 61%. We decided that if we do the same as the previous year, we will get the same results. We needed to change what we were doing,” said Maggie Laka, the school’s principal.
“We had to convince the learners that this dream of ours to reach at least a 75% pass rate, is possible. We are elated that it was even higher,” she said.
The school had a much larger matric group this year with 315 enrolled matric learners. It is the largest school in the district with a total of 2 078 learners.
The school started offering enrichment classes, not only on Saturdays but also during school holidays.
“Before the exams, we made our classrooms available for the children to study and offered extra lessons from 15:00 until 19:00 in the evening,” she said.
Not all children have access to a desk and a quiet place to study or to electricity to study at night.
The community bought into this dream and offered their support.
“Taxi drivers offered to take our learners home for free as it was quite dark at 19:00 and thus not safe to be on the streets. The Morolo family encouraged the children by donating ten iPads to the top performers and laptops to the top three as well. Last year’s matric group was also taken on a trip when they were in Grd 11, where we encouraged them to stay focussed and work hard.”
The department of education and the school governing body offered their dedicated support. Church groups came to talk to the learners.
“The acting circuit manager, Julia Mogaswa, would regularly phone me to say: ‘Ma’am Laka, I hope you are not relaxing!’” she laughed.
Laka, who completed the Partners for Possibility (PfP) programme, said it has added so much value. This programme partners school principals with business leaders to exchange ideas and views.
Anette Nel, a subject advisor who mentored the school, said the change was all due to very hard work from the staff members and an improvement in discipline.
“We did a quarterly analysis of all the matrics’ academic results and discussed which areas they needed to focus on. I applaud them for their hard work.”
Of Phagameng High School class of 2022, 266 learners passed with 93 bachelor’s exemptions, 100 with certificate exemption and 73 with higher certificates. They had 67 distinctions overall.
The school’s top performer was Thabang Maluse with four distinctions (84,14%) in accounting, business studies, economics and life orientation. Samuel Mphloane (78,7%) also had four distinctions in business studies, economics, tourism and life orientation. The following learners achieved three distinctions: Mpho Maako (80%), Malebo Ndhlovu (80%), Mosotho Ndhlovu (76%) and Pontsho Mafuna (72%).
