Creecy, a former education MEC, said this at an education stakeholders’ meeting in Alexandra in recognition of the improved 2015 matric results.
“Despite the complex and difficult year and heightened standards in the examinations, the local 2015 matric students improved the pass rate compared to the previous year,” she said.
“Together with those in primary schools, the children managed to overcome the challenge of overcrowding, [there was an increase in] the number of those who qualified for university entry and other study fields, while the primary pupils improved in literacy and numeracy.”
Creecy promised that education would be improved through government’s two strategies of paperless classrooms, and the twinning of under-resourced schools with those with plentiful resources.
The paperless classroom, she said, would bridge the gap in teaching and learning created by historical inequality. “It involves the provision of tablets and installation of smart boards in poor schools and will enable subjects to be taught from a central point to all schools using the very best teachers in the province. Lessons would be broadcast simultaneously to children in the twinned schools.”
The twinning arrangement is being piloted between Bovet in Alexandra and Lyndhurst primary schools, and between Alex and Sandown high schools in Sandton. “This arrangement is, 22 years into democracy, a good experiment on national social cohesion, will reduce the social and cultural gaps, and develop a common desire among the different socio-economic groups of citizens for the best opportunities to be accessed by all.”
