• Tweet

ALL READY: Lefikeng Secondary School matriculants in Botshabelo are hoping to achieve a 90% pass rate this year, their principal said. PHOTO: NTWAAGAE SELEKA

 The way we prepared this year, nothing is impossible. We sat down with teachers, parents and pupils and together we set goals 

RELATED ARTICLES

• Government fails EC high school pupils
• Call for textbooks report to be public
• Varsity in turnaround plan for the future

TWO under-performing schools in Free State are confident they have prepared enough and their Matric pupils will achieve better results than previously at the end of the year.

Sowetan yesterday visited Vulamasango Secondary in Mangaung and Lefikeng Secondary in Botshabelo, where matriculants were busy writing preliminary examinations.

The principals of both schools said they had worked hard to turn around last year's poor showing.

Meshack Medupi, principal of Lefikeng Secondary, said his school achieved 47,5 % last year and is expecting a 90% pass rate with some distinctions this year.

"It is a target that we aim to achieve," Medupi said.

"The way we prepared this year, nothing is impossible. We sat down with teachers, parents and pupils and together we set goals.

"We started teaching three days before the schools opened in January. I am happy everybody came on board and were supportive of each other."

During the mid-term examinations the school obtained 90,8 %.

"Our pupils have been at school every day this year. At weekends we taught pupils mathematics and physical science.

"We also partnered with other schools to exchange teachers at weekends to assist pupils.

"Our pupils are also sent to study camps at weekends. I am happy that their parents are also supportive," Medupi said.

Vulamasango Secondary principal, Nkululeko Khalipa, said the school achieved 40,15% last year, and had improved to 63% during mid-term examinations this year.

"We hope to improve the mid-term results to 80% at the end of year," Khalipa said.

"I am proud that our pupils and teachers have shown commitment and dedication.

"Parents and the school governing body are also supportive of the pupils."

Both principals attributed last year's poor results to late-coming, absenteeism and a lack of commitment from teachers, pupils and parents.

Free State MEC for education Tate Makgoe said the province was expecting an 80% pass rate this year.

Makgoe said with the preparations, resources and hard work by teachers and pupils, 80% was not a "dream".

Last year the province achieved a 75,7 % pass rate.

Last year 26,3% of pupils in the province obtained university exemption and the department wants to increase that to 30%.

Makgoe said 247,771 pupils in the province will be writing matric exams this year.

- ntwagaes@sowetan.co.za

Comments

• Sign in or sign up to comment

Sat May 25 10:04:04 SAST 2013 ::

Sep 12, 2012

Papage

Education does not start at Matric, how do we expect our Children to be better people tomorrow if we only think that passing Matric is the only thing they need to achive in their schooling time, it is wrong, education must start at the early stage of child upbringing, teach them morals while small to better them for future. We are doomed if we only focus on matrics, our education system need sober ministers, not Mma Angie, we need people who knows what education mean, Angie does not know. We need people like Prof Bhengu, Prof Mangena, we need leaders in education
Report Abuse

Sep 12, 2012

inkwenkweemdaka

yeh right
Report Abuse

Sep 12, 2012

Beer

is it
Report Abuse

Sep 12, 2012

BONGATSH

Don't blame teachers because they are under a the worst education of the country. I pity those poor children because our education system. Let's go back to the basics and surrender with dignity for the sake of the african child
Report Abuse

Sep 12, 2012

Mrazane

Agree with you 100% Papage. We need to beef up primary education, it is not easy to teach children in English in Grade 8 whereas they can barely construct a sentence in English. Our primary education needs to focus on languages and literacy ensure that our children can read and have decent numeracy skills.

All the best to the schools it seemed they tried their best hope it pays off.
Report Abuse

Sep 13, 2012

babathane

we still have teachers who do not attend to their periods, teachers who are always late at school, teachers who are drunk at school, teachers who teach subjects they have no thorough knowledge of . . .

We wish the Class of 2012 all the best. For graduates who would love to teach for about two years, please check out Teach SA. We really need your knowledge and skills.
Report Abuse

Read all 6 comments