The Democratic Alliance (DA) has rejected the Gauteng education department’s plans to close underperforming schools and instead proposed a rescue plan that it said would help improve matric results in those schools.
DA education spokesperson George Boinamo told reporters in Cape Town on Tuesday that the party’s proposed six-point plan includes setting up a national task team to closely monitor the performance of principals, teachers and pupils in underperforming schools.
”The DA proposes a task team of 10 members, which will be charged with visiting every school that obtained a pass rate of less that 20% and conducting a thorough investigation into all circumstances at that school,” he said.
The task team, Boinamo said, would then produce a report on the key reasons why a particular school is underperforming.
”This report should be submitted to the national minister for approval, and she should be responsible for ensuring that recommendations are implemented and disciplinary action is taken,” he said.
Of the 528 525 candidates who wrote matric in 2006, only 351 503 passed, with eight schools in the Eastern Cape and three in Limpopo failing to register a single pass.
In Gauteng, the poor performance of certain schools resulted in the provincial minister of education, Angie Motshekga, threatening to close down 200 schools that she said had become dysfunctional.
She has since withdrawn her threat. — Sapa