Way forward for Westenburg Secondary
"As a school we tried everything in our power to help the learners. We told them to bring doctor's letters for the days they did not come to write the examinations, which they didn't do."
POLOKWANE – “It is part of your responsibility as parents to check your child’s school books to make sure they do their homework and assignments. If you check your child’s books and there is no work in it, there is a problem.”
These are the words of Westenburg Secondary School’s Acting Principal, Betty Boom at a meeting between parents and personnel of the school, to deliberate on the best way forward to improve the school’s pass rate.
She said parents need to take responsibility in the role they played in their children’s results and not be furious with the school if their child fails the grade at the end of the year.
“Either the child is not doing his or her work, or the teacher is not doing theirs.
“When this happens you can come to the school and follow up so the matter can be addressed immediately,” she said.
Boom explained to the parents the school is made up of three essential components – the parents, learners, and personnel.
The meeting was attended by the parents, the acting school principal and the School Governing Body (SGB) last week to address the school’s low pass rate after 60% of the Gr 8’s failed the grade last year.
“Last year we had 217 Gr 12 learners of which 88 passed, 12 learners’ results were incomplete and the rest failed. The reason why some learners had incomplete results is because they failed to write some of the examination papers.
“As a school we tried everything in our power to help the learners. We told them to bring doctor’s letters for the days they did not come to write the examinations, which they didn’t do.”
“We even visited the houses of those who failed to submit their assignments or write the necessary tests throughout the year in order to assist them with handing in the necessary things,” Boom explained.
Boom added that along with this, the school has arranged that when parents come to collect their child’s report they can have a look at their child’s file to see their progress and performance. “This way the parents get to meet their children’s teachers, unfortunately as is mostly the case, it is only the parents of children who do well at school who come,” Boom explained.
Some of the parents were outraged because their children had to repeat the same grade for the third time and they demanded to know how that was possible. Boom explained that the Department of Education has a specific system when it comes to condoning learners.
“The department continuously changes their policy. When a learner fails, there is a progress with adjustment system where the department looks at the learners’ age and how many times they have failed before deciding to allow the learner to pass. If the learner fails again, the department looks at the learners’ results and take into consideration the learners’ behaviour, if they skipped classes, and if they were absent without reason. Should the learner not meet these criteria favourably, they will not be allowed to move on to the next grade,” Boom explained.
Some of the parents’ biggest concerns were the school not informing them when their children were not at school and Afrikaans speaking learners having to write their examinations in English because question papers were not translated.
“With regard to informing parents when their children are not at school, we do call them to tell them, our Telkom account is evidence to this. We also send letters to parents, however, they do not respond. As part of attempting to find a solution, we are working on a SMS notification system as this is more feasible,” Boom added. She said the department sets the question papers in English which then has to be translated by the teachers. However, she added, sometimes there is not enough time for the teachers to translate because the department brings the question papers the morning of the examination, an hour before the exam is set to start.
Department of Education Spokesperson, Dr Naledzani Rasila, said the department will closely monitor under-performing schools across the province, which will include Westenburg. According to Rasila there is no challenge with question papers as they are set in languages of instruction.
As a way forward, the SGB, parents, learners and school management agreed to have monthly meetings to identify problems and find immediate solutions as well as discuss performance and how to improve.
The Head of Department (HOD) at the school will check on teachers to make sure they are doing their jobs and the principal will also monitor teachers and the HOD.
Following the meeting, learners in each grade and their parents will sign a pledge vowing they will work hard together and pass this year.
