All Gauteng public schools that performed below 65% will have to account to the Gauteng education department for their poor performance.

This was  announced on Wednesday  by Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi  who was talking at the provincial announcement of matric results at Mosaiek Taetro in Roodepoort.

“In the next few days the department will meet with the school management teams of  all public schools that performed below 65% so that they can account for their poor performance. However, I am happy to announce that for the first time there are no public schools that performed below 40%,” Lesufi said.

Lesufi said he was happy to highlight that the number of underperforming public schools below 50%  has decreased from 101 in 2013 to 9 in 2017, three in 2018 and 1 in 2019.

The province achieved a pass rate of 87.2%  and contributed 23% of all national distinctions.

“We gave it a good try and sometimes when you give it a try you either succeed or not. We might not be number 1 as a province but we are number 1 in everything that comes with education. It must also be noted that just over 93.7% of Gauteng schools performed above the nationally defined benchmark for school under-performance of 65%,” Lesufi said.

Lesufi said they had also made a significant stride in closing the gap between schools serving specifically townships and those with a strong middle-class component.

Gauteng premier David Makhura congratulated the class of 2019 in the province and also the leader of the education team.

“We have stayed at 87%, I see there is a minus something there but we have stayed at 87%. I want to say behind the number and statistics lie a multitude of individuals and their stories which are inspiring. Ours is a story of hope which is about the power and potential of education to liberate and free even those born under difficult circumstances. There is only one school that got less than 50% in the province,” he said.

Makhura gave Lesufi a task to also focus on primary schools.

“The teachers in primary school thought they are having it nice but the honeymoon is over. The spotlight will be on primary schools, we want our children to be properly prepared for the future. I want to see the same pressure on primary schools,” Makhura said.