Most schools underperforming

2008-09-04 18:11

Pretoria - Most public schools are underperforming, Education Minister Naledi Pandor said in Pretoria on Thursday.

"The education sector is underperforming at all levels in a wide range of institutions," she told the opening of a conference of the South African Principals' Association.

"The first aspect of underperformance is that learners are not acquiring key skills for learning in our schools, the foundations for learning.

"This is evident in primary school and in secondary school. Most important among these is the ability to read, write, and calculate," she continued.

A study conducted by the Jet Education Trust revealed that only around 20% of schools succeeded in teaching maths and science.

"It suggested that if you use success in these subjects and matric endorsement achievement as proxies for good performance, we would have to conclude that 80% of our secondary schools are underperforming," she said.

The outcome of recent primary school literacy and numeracy tests showed that children performed poorly in both areas. She did not raise this to demoralise delegates, but to highlight those areas in which leadership was needed.

"I would suggest that, given the urgent necessity to turn around our learning performance, we should all be devising strategies for improved performance and expanding success."

Pandor said much was expected of principals. There were 26 000 public schools in the country with about 12 million pupils and 36 000 teachers.

The conference ends on Sunday.

- SAPA