The Head of Department (HOD) from the Eastern Cape Department of Education, Dr Soyisile Nuku, addressed 192 principals from the Cluster A under-performing Senior Secondary Schools at the Assemblies of God Church Hall in Mthatha, last week.
This session is mandatory and done annually to the identified cohort of under-performing school principals for intervention and support.
Nuku said that this is the programme done by the department throughout the year; the HOD has the responsibility to identify the under-performing schools and ensure that they get the necessary support.
“We are here today to ensure that the schools which are under-performing are doing all they can to get support, in order to achieve the best results at the end of the year. What we are doing is in the section 58b of the South African School’s Act. It says that the HOD must identify under-performing schools according to three criteria, also he/she must take all reasonable steps to assist these schools in addressing underperformance,” said Nuku.
He added that they wanted to give them some tips on what they should do in order to uplift their standard.
Nuku added that for instance now they are in the last days of the year, so learners should be kept in school until they finish up their final exams. Evening and morning classes must be some of the tools that are used by schools now.
According to him, he said that they hope that their tips will help them to achieve the 80 percent matric results they are targeting as the Province of the Eastern Cape.
He said that they could not disappoint government, that is why they are doing all they can.
He said that there are many factors that lead to under-performing, and some are societal.
“There are child-headed families among townships and in rural areas. You find that some learners are not taken care of by parents, which makes the situation hard for them.
Nuku confirmed that in the session they were concentrating on Grade 12s, but in the system they looked at all grades, including Primary Schools. The Deputy Director-General (DDG) for the Department of Education, Ray Tywakadi, confirmed that Grade 12 learners are busy writing their trial exams now. He said that by hosting this session what they wanted to do was to look at the tips that could be used by these schools, as they are preparing for final examinations.
