GARDEN ROUTE NEWS - The Eden and Central Karoo district office of the Western Cape Education Department had very specific strategies and goals for 2024 which contributed to its matrics taking top honours among the eight provincial districts with a pass rate of 89,3%.
A very pleased District Director Jewel Jonkers told George Herald this morning that they had set themselves three targets for 2024, and they achieved them all.
"We wanted to break through the 85% pass rate ceiling, which we did for the first time since the covid pandemic and we are well up from last year's 84,4%.
" In terms of quality education, we aimed to increase the percentage of bachelor's passes to at least 45% in order to give more learners broader prospects for future education, and we did that. And then we wanted to be top in the province, and indeed we are.
"This is an exceptional achievement as our district fared better than well-to-do districts in the Mother City."
Jonkers said it was a team effort of the whole community.
"We are absolutely grateful to our Heavenly Father for the privilege of being first in the province. Thank you to the minister, my wife Rosalene and my children, all the officials and their families, subject advisors, subject teams, teachers, governing bodies, and businesses. This is definitely a community effort and I ask that everyone takes ownership of our number one position."
The district's five-year strategy, 'You Rise', is starting to pay off. "Its impact can already be seen in the improvement in the results of the systemic evaluation [in Grades 3, 6 and 9]. The results show that our efforts are spread over the whole education system and not just one phase. The matric results are also proof that the strategies is working."
Through the Back on Track (BOT) programme that was introduced last year, selected tutors from other schools are brought in to train certain local teachers with the aim to improve their methods and knowledge of their subject.
"The teacher is taken out of class for one day's training and for the following nine days has to implement what was learned. The cycle is repeated. While the teacher is in training, his class is also receiving special tutoring."
He said the district is very excited about 2025 and their aim is to introduce learners to "a whole new world of possibilities by breaking walls of limitations through building strong systems and winning teams".
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