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STRATEGY: Gauteng MEC for education Barbara Creecy. PHOTO: Mohau Mofokeng

Gauteng eduction spokesman Charles Phahlane said though they were happy with the improvements in the township, they wanted to give pupils a chance to speak about their challenges.

"We have talked with parents and other stakeholders but we understand that if we do not talk to the learners nothing can improve."

He said matric performance was now at 67% but was still lower than the national pass rate of 70%.

"But we would like to improve it. These learners are the ones that are not attending weekend programmes," Phahlane said.

"We want to understand what keeps them from coming and what we can do to help them."

Last year the province held the Education Summit in response to school disruptions and low pass rates.

This week the department held a stakeholder workshop on Monday and agreed on the Soweto Intervention Strategy, which seeks to improve the performance of the 50 secondary schools that achieved less than 70% in the 2011 Grade 12 examinations and primary schools that obtained below 60% in the Annual National Assessment results.

As part of this strategy these schools have monthly accounting sessions on curriculum delivery and an incubator programme.

Teacher development started in February for the the five core subjects for intervention: maths, physical science, English, accounting and life sciences.