SA's Top Schools

BBSA

BBSA

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Single-sex schools are better than co-ed, girls are smarter than boys, Afrikaans schools do extraordinarily well and Gauteng has the most top state schools.

These are some of the dramatic findings of the Sunday Times Top 100 Schools survey, based on data provided by the Department of Education.
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In addition, the survey confirmed that former model C schools are still top performers, with 94 of them making the list out of roughly 6000 high schools.
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Although 32 Afrikaans schools and eight parallel-medium schools featured in the top 100, only 818 black matriculants were enrolled in these schools compared with 6911 white pupils.

Paul Colditz, chief executive of the Federation of Governing Bodies of South African Schools, said Afrikaans schools were top performers because pupils were taught in their mother tongue from Grade R to matric.

"It may be a risky comment to make but generally you will find that the level of participation in the affairs of the school by Afrikaans-speaking parents is a little higher.

"There is also a little more concern about the education of their children," he said.
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The minister of basic education, Angie Motshekga, said she was proud of the achievements of the Afrikaans-medium schools, adding that she was ready to consult with their management teams "to learn and adapt some of their systems" to help struggling schools.
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I'm impressed with the ministers comment. Usually they will say that these schools should be transformed at all cost.
 
List

The list is not in the paper on the net - can anyone post it please?
 
BBSA said:
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I take exception to the “girls are smarter than boys” remark. It is untrue – girls mature faster than boys so their performance in school skews statistical results. Depending on the level of maturity (this is inexact), it’s as if girls were two years older than boys although their biological age is commensurate with boys. Of course they would perform better than boys at school (they have an edge). Things even-out and turn around post-school.
 
Aside from that school results involve a lot more than intelligence. Somehow if the roles were reversed I doubt they would've phrased it that way.
 
Just as a note, they're rating government/state schools only. I was a bit alarmed at first when I didn't see my old high school on that list ;). Also Westerford is probably the top school in SA based on the number of distinctions/per person for matric in 2008, even when one includes private schools. Obviously some private schools do the IEB syllabus, but a fair number in the Western Cape still do the government matric exams.
 
Chris said:
Just as a note, they're rating government/state schools only. I was a bit alarmed at first when I didn't see my old high school on that list ;). Also Westerford is probably the top school in SA based on the number of distinctions/per person for matric in 2008, even when one includes private schools. Obviously some private schools do the IEB syllabus, but a fair number in the Western Cape still do the government matric exams.
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That makes sense, didn't realise it until I saw the full list. Only including private schools that don't do IEB I presume. Why exclude private schools anyway? Maybe its just me but I've never heard of Westerford.
 
Its all big schools to be honest, medium to small sizes can't really compete with them as they get their pupils from 1-2 neighbourhoods.
 
Chris said:
Just as a note, they're rating government/state schools only. I was a bit alarmed at first when I didn't see my old high school on that list ;). Also Westerford is probably the top school in SA based on the number of distinctions/per person for matric in 2008, even when one includes private schools. Obviously some private schools do the IEB syllabus, but a fair number in the Western Cape still do the government matric exams.
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Yeah, that is key.
 
Don't they usually include the private schools in these top 100 lists or do they always do this.?
 
Syndyre said:
That makes sense, didn't realise it until I saw the full list. Only including private schools that don't do IEB I presume. Why exclude private schools anyway? Maybe its just me but I've never heard of Westerford.
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Westerford is quite a prominent former Model-C school - I'm surprised you haven't heard of it. It's not very strong on sport though - so you won't hear it in the same breath as Rondebosch/SACS/Wynberg when discussing famous schoolboy rivalries.. They're very focused on academics, I think the top matriculant in the Western Cape actually came from there in 2008.

Not sure why they don't include private schools :confused: Seems a little silly to be honest.
 
Surprised Pinelands High wasn't in the list. I know for the past few years they have had a few of the top students in the WC.
 
Palimino said:
I take exception to the “girls are smarter than boys” remark. It is untrue – girls mature faster than boys so their performance in school skews statistical results. Depending on the level of maturity (this is inexact), it’s as if girls were two years older than boys although their biological age is commensurate with boys. Of course they would perform better than boys at school (they have an edge). Things even-out and turn around post-school.
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Boy are just lazier than girls.
 
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