Dept set for matric exams

2003-09-22 20:08

Cape Town - The education department was in a high state of preparedness for the forthcoming matric examinations, Education Minister Kader Asmal said on Monday following a Council of Education Ministers (CEM) meeting.

"There is an exceptional state of preparedness compared with five years ago," Asmal said during a media briefing, adding that every aspect of the examinations had been looked at.

"One thousand four hundred papers have been set, there will be 1 037 examiners, 25 000 markers appointed, 77 marking centres and 5 703 examination centres... We want to make the examinations as fool-proof as possible," he said.

Asmal said it was envisaged that examination papers would only get to schools on the day of that specific examination, with the final results made known on December 30.

Asmal said the CEM meeting also noted a promising report regarding the procurement and distribution of learning support material, with the amount spent on these materials increasing from R350m in 1999 to about R2.2bn for 2004.

Quality materials

He said the "quality of education" depended largely on pupils receiving quality materials in a timely fashion, with a key challenge remaining to improve the retention of books at schools, so that less was spent on new replacement books.

Asmal said the meeting agreed to the establishment of a ministerial committee on rural education, which would investigate a wide range of issues including the practices of "platooning" - where two separate schools were hosted on the same premises - and "double-shifts" where one school operated two shifts.

Other issues the new committee will look into were transport, water, sanitation as well as the impact of child labour practices on school attendance.

Monday's meeting also considered human rights violations at schools, where cultural, religious and racial discrimination took place.

"It was agreed that schools should not be allowed to participate in racially exclusive sports events, and that BCVO (Beheerligaam vir Christelike Volkseie Onderrig) schools should be closely monitored," he said.

Asmal said his was a "friendly action" to ensure that the "demon" of gender and other forms of discrimation would not be countenanced.

Quota system

At the start of the media briefing, Asmal highlighted the fact that "no decision" had been taken by the department and the council about a quota system for school governing bodies (SGBs).

"We will have to amend the SA Schools Act (for this to happen) and there is no possibility of that," he said, adding that he hoped political parties would not jump to conclusions based on inaccurate newspaper reports because this did not help dialogue with government.

"Obviously SGBs should be representative of the general demographics of the school... (but) to anticipate anything they (a committee set up to look into SGBs) recommend is to be grossly insulting."

The SGB committee was expected to hand over their report at the end of October.

Turning to the issue of school uniforms, Asmal said some of the news stories were "extraordinary, if not malicious" and that it was necessary to get rid of such "canards".

He reiterated that there was no intention to ban school uniforms, but only a wish to reduce the costs thereof.

Asked about the Cape Town teacher who appeared in court on Monday in connection with a hoard of child pornography, Asmal said the SA Council of Educators was looking at the matter "very carefully".

- SAPA