MBOMBELA – The minister of basic education, Ms Angie Motshekga, recently told thousands of stakeholders, teachers and parents that she was grateful to still have a job after the disappointing 2014 Annual National Assessment (ANA) results.
“It’s a crime and an embarrassment to get less than 20 per cent in grade nine,” said Motshekga while addressing thousands of people who attended the opening of Acorn to Oaks Comprehensive High School in Acornhoek.
Motshekga further called on teachers to accept the proposed Four By One in order to sharpen their skills and enhance and improve learners’ results.
She also stated that teachers had to try by all means to retain learners in the system unlike now where stats showed that the department had lost about 25 per cent of learners from grades nine to11. She added that the recently-introduced policy of not failing learners twice in a grade would help to keep the youth of the country in the education system.
“Our stats show that a million kids repeat a grade annually, you cannot fail learners twice and expect them to repeat a grade for a third time. Our policy is that a learner be failed once in a phase and schools must comply with this. We must target them for special support if they fail twice,” she said.
“We have to make sure that we protect our learners against an environment that will throw them out of the education system,” she emphasised.
She continued to say that the department would work very hard to ensure that there was a book for every child in every learning area from this year onward. She also pleaded with parents to encourage their children to return their school books when they proceed to other grades and mentioned that the replacement and deployment of teachers in public schools were critical and required full attention.
The secretary of the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) in Mpumalanga, Mr Walter Hlaise, said it was not opposed to efforts to develop teachers.
“However, we urge the department to consult with teachers unions so that we can also give our own input on how best to implement this,” Hlaise said.
He also echoed the minister’s call of not failing learners twice a grade. “It’s unacceptable to fail learners twice, what we are saying is that the department must offer proper alternatives so that learners don’t become unemployed youth.”
