Question NW1118 to the Minister of Basic Education
06 June 2017 - NW1118
Davis, Mr GR to ask the Minister of Basic Education
Whether with reference to ‘the comments made during the meeting of the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education on 3 May 2017 by a certain official (name furnished) that some principals are inflating their matric pass rates by holding back learners, her department has initiated a full –scale investigation into the extent of this problem nationally; if not, why not; if so, what (a) were the findings of the investigation and (b) action has been taken against principals found guilty of the practices knows as gatekeeping or culling to artificially inflate their matric pass rate?
Reply:
The comment was made in the context of the high repeat rate in the system.
(a) No full scale investigation has been initiated.
(b) There was no need to conduct such an investigation because:
- Data on both the repeat and drop-out rates showed that the number of learners decrease from Grade 10 onwards; and
- Measures were put in place to investigate the risk e.g. Progression Policy, Screening, Identification, Assessment and Support (SIAS) policy, Curriculum differentiation, etc.