Question NW179 to the Minister of Basic Education
05 May 2016 - NW179
Davis, Mr GR to ask the Minister of Basic Education
(1)Whether, with reference to section 58B of the South African Schools Act, Act 84 of 1996, she received a report from any Member of the Executive Council (MEC) of any province setting out the action taken by their respective Heads of Department with regard to underperforming Schools in their respective provinces for the 2014 academic year; if not, why not; if so, (a) which MECs submitted reports and (b) on which date was each report submitted to her; (2) (a) how does her department define underperforming public schools (b) which public schools were identified as underperforming in each province in the 2014 academic year and (c) what action was taken in each specified case
Reply:
(1)(a) The Minister of Basic Education, Mrs AM Motshekga, MP, received reports in terms of Section 58B of the South African Schools Act 84 of 1996 from the following provinces:
1. Free State;
2. Gauteng;
3. KwaZulu-Natal;
4. Mpumalanga;
5. Northern Cape;
6. North West; and
7. Western Cape.
(1)(b) The table below indicates the dates reports were received from Members of the Executive Council:
|
Nr |
Province |
Date submitted |
|
Free State |
22/04/15 |
|
|
Gauteng |
23/03/15 |
|
|
KwaZulu Natal |
16/06/15 |
|
|
Mpumalanga |
23/03/15 |
|
|
Northern Cape |
24/02/15 |
|
|
North West |
22/03/15 |
|
|
Western Cape |
24/02/15 |
|
(2)(a) The Minister of Basic Education, Mrs AM Motshekga, MP, after consultation with Council of Education Ministers (CEM) and Heads of Education Departments Committee (HEDCOM), issued a circular, Circular D1 of 2014, on 5 November 2014 to guide provinces on how to identify and manage underperforming schools.
A School is deemed to be underperforming if:
- At Secondary level, its percentage pass in the National Senior Certificate examinations falls below 60%; and
- At Primary level, using Literacy as a proxy, it has more than 50% of learners performing at level 3 and below in the Annual National Assessments in Grades 3 and 6;
(2)(b) Provinces do not uniformly submit names of schools they have identified. Some provinces submitted the names of the underperforming schools while others just indicated the number of schools identified using the criteria above.
Attached at Annexures A1, A2, A3 and A4 are the lists of schools identified as underperforming in the 2014 academic year from the provinces that submitted the information.
(2)(c) Provinces complied with the guidance as provided in Section 58B of the South African Schools Act 84 of 1996, as well as the guidance provided by the Minister. The following are collective actions taken by the provinces when managing underperforming schools in the 2014 academic year:
- All identified schools were issued with letters indicating that they have underperformed in the 2014 academic year and were also asked to prepare Academic Performance Improvement Plans detailing how they will improve their performance;
- All identified schools submitted their Academic Performance Improvement Plans and these were reviewed and approved by the Superintendents-General in respective provinces; and
- Meetings with underperforming schools were organised and District Support Teams were set up by Provinces to assist identified schools to improve their performance.