On Friday, the department officials led by Education MEC Kwazi Mshengu launched the accountability sessions in hopes of understanding the challenges that led to this poor performance and to hold officials accountable.
While the accountability session are taking place at all schools, the department decided to start with schools and districts that only achieved a pass rate below 40%.
Eleven of the 12 districts in the province had between one and three schools with a pass rate below 40%, and it was only Ugu District that did not, Mshengu said.
It has been reported that the matric class of 2021 achieved a 76.8% pass rate, which is a marginal 0.8% decrease from the performance of the class of 2020. A total of 127 990 pupils passed Grade 12 in the province.
Mshengu, in a statement, said everyone tasked with delivering on the department’s mandate needed to account for the low pass rate in those schools. He said employees could not enjoy salaries at the end of the month without putting in the required performance.
“We realised that it is important for everyone to account for the results that we got last year and how we should improve, because all of us are involved in the process of teaching and learning, which is the core mandate of the department.
“Therefore all of us must be accountable in the position that we hold as a circuit manager, the school principal, curriculum manager, as the district director, as the MEC. What did you do to contribute to the performance of our schools?
“So these schools that performed below 40%, we are asking what went wrong? The principal must tell us, the circuit manager who provided direct support to the school must tell us. If things point to head office, the HODs must tell us what went wrong at head office and who is accountable for that” he said.
Mshengu said if the department officials are not accountable for the work that they do, the department is not going to achieve its mandate.
He said if the system performed better, all those in it can be proud of it, however if it does not work well, then everyone must account.
The MEC said even staff members at the head office must be accountable, saying while they may not be in the classroom teaching, how well they perform has an impact on schools.
“We do not want to go back to a situation of zero percent pass rate schools, we want to eliminate schools that perform below 40% and our target is to have schools performing at 80%,” said Mshengu.
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- The 2021 matric pass rate is 76.4% (MyBroadband)
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