School blues (editorial)
2007-01-18
THE year 2007 will be a problematic one for our schools.
The poor matric pass rate at some local high schools has forced the Department of Education to appoint mentors to assist struggling principals to upgrade the quality of the schooling.
A possible investigation looms over schools which are underperforming, with matric pass rates of lower than 60%.
Meanwhile the outcomes-based syllabus has left educators and their students confused - with a huge failure rate in grade ten.
This is causing a bottleneck leaving some schools with oversized classes and too few classrooms to accommodate the learners.
Despite this tale of woe, many schools are still achieving excellent matric results which have done us proud.
And with all the bright-eyed newcomers who are flocking to first grade, one can only hope that they will not, ten or twelve years from now, be left disheartened within a failing school system threatening to grind to a halt.
It is up to educators and administrators to find a way forward to ensure that quality education is available to all our children, whatever the income of the parents.
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