Three days into the school year and Gauteng’s teenagers are already hanging around on street corners rather than in class. Bunking classes and smoking outside buildings are a common problem in some high schools, and truancy rates are high in many disadvantaged areas.
”We need to get the parents and the community more involved in the schools,” Naledi Pandor told the Mail & Guardian Online on Thursday, while on a surprise tour of schools in Gauteng.
She was speaking after a visit to Lenasia Secondary School, which achieved a pass rate of 91,9% in last year’s matric examinations. Pandor was worried that such schools with good pass rates were being over-looked and not congratulated on their achievements.
However, on her visit to the school, students were caught smoking outside the building. The minister recommended that the school implemented stricter disciplinary policies.
”There are four principles that need to be in place. There needs to be teacher commitment, principal commitment, pupil commitment, and parent and community commitment. Parents have an important role to play and [have] to equip their children for school. Also, if the principal and teachers are not dedicated, the pupils will not be either,” said Pandor.
”Before going to the schools, I look at the background of each school. We seem to get a positive attitude from primary schools while we have to work the hardest at secondary schools.”
Of the three secondary schools that were visited by the minister and Gauteng minister of education Angie Motshekga, Lenasia Secondary performed the best in the 2007 matric exams, while Kwabhekilanga Secondary in Alexandra and Ibhongo Secondary in Soweto under-performed with a pass rate of 45,9% and 34,1% respectively.
Pandor said the Education Department needs to encourage schools that have been doing well and ”give those that did bad a hard time”.
Many of the schools that she visited were found to have misinformed the department on logistics for the new year. Some schools were short of desks and basic equipment even though the department had been told these were provided. Kwabhekilanga Secondary was found not to have much of its necessary resources.
Book shortages in Gauteng have been one of the main issues raised since schools reopened on Wednesday. The Gauteng department of education last year fired staff due to the mismanagement of funds allocated to books.
Pandor said the main reason for the book shortages in secondary schools was that the Education Department had provided a basic package for all grade-12 learners, and these packages had not been ordered beforehand by schools.
”We have identified the need in the schools we visited and we will do so in the ones we continue to visit. We need to make sure that the needs are fulfilled and we will check up on them in a few weeks. We must respond to the need.”
Pandor hinted at more surprise visits to come when she said that she and her team might be found ”out of the office more often” this year.