Pupils with 25% being passed

Kornhub

Kornhub

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Johannesburg - The 13-year-old smiles proudly in his black graduation gown. He holds a certificate announcing to the world that he has done well in his primary school in Bramfischerville, Soweto, and will be moving to high school.

One week later, his class teacher hands his report to the father. In it are listed nine subjects – most of which the boy failed dismally.

His average is 29 percent and the box which says he is ready to progress to the next grade has been ticked. In the comments line are the words “work hard”.

Meanwhile, the boy’s high school has not asked for his primary school report cards.

On Wednesday, he starts Grade 8.

According to education experts, this story is not unique, nor is it unique in township schools.

Khume Ramulifho, DA MPL for education in Gauteng, said they encountered a problem last year where a school appeared to be pushing through pupils with a 25 percent average.

He said unofficially he was told the pass mark was 28 percent, but it is not something that is widely spoken about.

“Teachers are reluctant to raise such problems,” Ramulifho said.

The reason for the low passes was varied, but a large problem was overcrowding, where teachers weren’t always able to identify that there was a problem.

Gauteng Department of Education spokesman Charles Phahlane said the department would investigate the child’s report.

It also seems to be a common occurrence that children are not able to read and write many years into their schooling.

Marion Brown and her husband Alistair, who have worked in education for 40 years, heard about a school in Soweto where the children were struggling to read and write in English.

Through their work at Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET) centre Put on the Light of Learning, run through the Khanyisa Outreach project, they arranged for children in grades 4, 5, 6 and 7 to come out on Saturdays and be taught English language skills.

Marion Brown said the children’s reading skills were very poor, particularly in the higher grades, and after a year of the Saturday classes, there was a huge improvement.

Unfortunately, the teachers refused to attend the lessons unless they were paid extra, and the project fell away.

The two top children in the sessions were given bursaries to attend better schools in Joburg and had gone on to do well in high school.

Brown said the biggest problem behind children doing so badly in their ordinary schooling was poor teaching.

“The fact that the teachers refused to come through to lessons unless they were paid says it all.”

Kathy Callaghan, from parents’ organisation Governors Alliance, said many children had problems.

They might need to go to a remedial school, be dyslexic or have problems with their eyesight, but these were not always picked up.

The 13-year-old boy’s marks were in line with recent average scores for the annual national assessment tests. “These tell us clearly that learners cannot read, write or do maths,” Callaghan said.

In maths tests, Grade 7 pupils were found to average 23.7 percent in quintile one schools, 23.8 percent in quintile two, 24.5 percent in quintile three, 27.4 percent in quintile four and 39.6 percent in quintile five.

Quintiles refer to the socio-economic status of the school, with the poorest schools in quintile one and the best-off in quintile five.

“When I mention these scores to some of my schools, their immediate response is that it isn’t them, but the quintile four and five results show this problem is across the board. These failure rates are in ordinary suburban schools,” Callaghan said.

The answer was not to simply fail the child, because most of them did not improve the next year.

Asked what happened to those children, Callaghan said many of them simply drop out of the system.
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http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/gauteng/pupils-with-25-being-passed-1.1448975

:wtf:
 
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At least now these failures and dropouts can forget about having to work, get a pat on the back and a monthly allowance from the anc. ****ing disgusting....
 
Does not surprise me in the least.

In fact, I would venture to say that most of the people in Government today went through the education system like this.
 
Why aren't the parents helping out?
 
Lupus said:
Why aren't the parents helping out?
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Remember when you were at school and the teacher would call your parents because of your marks? Or at least send out a letter that needed to be signed? Well that doesn't happen these days. Also, parents in general seem incredibly apathetic in this respect...
 
At the local high school 25% of the students failed, another 30% managed to just scrape through into the next grade. The teachers are blaming the parents, the parents are blaming the teachers, the local paper has been flooded with weekly letters by teachers and parents heaping blame on each other. The teachers say discipline is a problem. The parents say teachers are not doing their job. No one wants to accept responsibility. This is from todays paper...

Students are told to take their fights outside the school gates, as according to some teachers " once the child has left the school premises, he/she is no longer the responsibilty of the school". Videos have been posted on social networking sites of fights right outside the school gates. Now, I remember when I was in school, as long as you were wearing your school uniform, you were a representative of your school and was told to conduct yourself in a responsible manner.

I won't even bring up the matter of the teacher sleeping at school, the teacher who allows students to use their blackberry's to translate their afrikaans work , the teacher who kept the student's cellphones for them during a raid, or the teacher who sells sweets to the students during teaching hours.
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The problem here is that such a person might eventually get admitted to a university where he will fail dismally.
 
Slootvreter said:
The problem here is that such a person might eventually get admitted to a university where he will fail dismally.
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Exactly what I said...the problem is parents don't want to see that. It's too late to play the blame game. Your children have failed the year, it doesn't matter whose fault it is. These parents are insisting that their children be passed.
 
MsDenz said:
Exactly what I said...the problem is parents don't want to see that. It's too late to play the blame game. Your children have failed the year, it doesn't matter whose fault it is. These parents are insisting that their children be passed.
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Yeah and the universities cannot award such a kid a globally recognized degree or diploma, because the parents insist.
 
Lupus said:
Why aren't the parents helping out?
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My wife is a teacher. Parents don't care. Little Jonny can't do wrong... I can tell you stories that will make your head hurt of how parents don't give a crap.

Kids can't be flunked. You know how much admin work (and the department of education comes to you as teacher and ask why the teacher didn't do anything to help little jonnie to not to flunk, while 40 other kids in the class). All the crap comes to the teacher.

Kids know they can't be punished.. so they just go bonkers in class etc. So disipline is a problem.

I take this pass rate that goverment gives out with a truck load of salt...
 
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I think that we should make the pass mark 20% and call it lower grade.
And then have a 35% and call it standard grade and 60% for higher grade.

At least tertiary institutions and companies will know what they are getting.
 
marine1 said:
Would be nice to see this kid one day fly for SAA
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He might just get a government job - say president?

I know children and parents are to blame but a lot of teachers/educators are under qualified for the job. Most of our problems in this country can be fixed by getting our education system sorted out.
 
DJ... said:
Remember when you were at school and the teacher would call your parents because of your marks? Or at least send out a letter that needed to be signed? Well that doesn't happen these days. Also, parents in general seem incredibly apathetic in this respect...
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The difference is that when we were in school and you had to take something like that back to your teachers then you were the one that was in the poop.
Now the parents dont give the kids hell for it, they give the teachers hell instead. It all just leaves kids to do what they want and not care.
 
Yeah well, nothing for it anymore.
The concerns were raised decades ago.
The problems were highlighted.
The words were spoken.
The plans were mapped.

The politicians pocketed the money instead.

PS: I blame the Lion Match Company for all this (Stop trying to figure it out, you will only hurt yourself...)
 
alf101 said:
Nope, my marks were good.

My parents got called because of my attitude problem.
They told the principal its ok to give me jacks.
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My principal pushed me against the wall and lifted me by the throat and also punched me once for not having my blazer on. :D I was like bleh I probably deserved that :p
 
If teachers were allowed to use corporal punishment again, would grades improve?
 
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