Work pays off for inmates
KYALAMI – The Department of Justice and Correctional Services released the results for the 2020 matric inmates.
There was excitement in the air at Leeuwkop Prison recently as the 2020 matric results for inmates across South Africa were released.
The Minister of Justice and Correctional Services Ronald Lamola and Gauteng MEC for Education Panyaza Lesufi attended the event at Leeuwkop Prison on 25 February.
A number of members from several correctional facilities across the country attended, including their top-performing learners. Lamola said, “We have all accepted that Covid-19 has changed the way of life and introduced a new normal in our daily routines. The Department of Correctional Services has adapted to this new normal. We have endured and continue to mitigate against Covid-19 in our centres. This is in line with our objective to protect both officials and inmates against the effects of Covid-19 and safe lives.”
He added, “The education of inmates was also affected and faced various challenges when our country was placed under lockdown in March 2020. This disrupted our educational programmes. Hence we explored other approaches for teaching and learning behind bars. One of the approaches we implemented and intensified was access to online tutoring and learning by inmates.”
Lamola said that the Department of Justice and Correctional Services are gearing their education programmes to online learning and would like to carry on their education and become productive citizens.
In 2020, the full-time learners with the Department of Correctional Services achieved an 86.3 per cent pass rate. Lamola added, “Our learners also obtained a total of 76 distinctions and we also produced 78 bachelor’s passes.”
The top-performing learner overall was Lwazi Chamane from Usethubeni Youth Centre in Durban achieved a stellar average of 80.6 per cent and four distinctions in IsiZulu, life orientation, history and tourism. The second-best learner was Tomy Kamalikoli from St Albans who achieved an average of 80.1 per cent followed by Alan Krotz from Brandvlei Youth Centre who achieved an average of 79.7 per cent.
The Usethubeni Youth Centre was also awarded as the school with the highest number of distinctions producing 43 per cent of all distinctions achieved. A recognition award was given to the Johannesburg Female Centre for creating for first full DSC centre for female inmates.
