More than 200 Western Cape learners are facing a joyless holiday as they await news on whether they will be able to continue in their current grade or face being demoted when schools re-open after the Easter break.
Western Cape education officials are scrutinizing the 2008 end-of-year results for 210 learners at the Matthew Goniwe Memorial High School in Cape Town’s Khayelitsha township after huge irregularities were found.
The grade 11 and 12 learners could be forced to return to their previous grades as their end-of-year results contained in school records do not match those that were submitted to the department.
WECD spokesperson Paddy Attwell told the Teacher that the department has completed its investigation into the matter and will consult with the school community after the Easter holidays.
“The school principal has already been suspended, and officials from the Metropole East Education District have been going through learners’ portfolios and mark sheets to determine how the irregular promotion of learners was able to take place”, said Attwell.
“It is up to the district management to decide whether any of the learners will be demoted but this will only happen once they have consulted with the school community, which includes the affected learners and parents.”
Attwell could not comment on whether the school has a history of poor performance but said an intervention team made up of education specialists has been set up to assist the school.
“We have established a task team to look at all aspects of academic performance at the school in question and they have come up with a plan to prevent a similar situation happening again in the future.”
The department is currently running an Autumn school to ‘assist all learners at the school to improve their results’ and has similar initiatives planned for the rest of the academic year.