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19 February, 2016 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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WCED awards schools for excellence in language and maths. Statement by Minister Debbie Schäfer, Minister of Education The Western Cape Education Department has awarded 53 awards in 12 categories to schools for improvement and excellence in the WCED's Systemic Tests in October 2015. Debbie Schäfer, the Western Cape Education Minister, presented the awards at a function held at Fairview Primary in Grassy Park on Thursday night, 18 February 2016.02.19 The systemic tests measure the performance of learners in language and maths in Grade 3, 6 and 9. The tests help to identify exactly what must be done to improve language and maths performance, especially in primary schools, to build the foundation needed for further learning. Minister Schäfer addressed the gathering as follows: It gives me great pleasure tonight to celebrate the achievements of schools that have produced excellent results and improvements in our Grade 3, 6 and 9 language and mathematics systemic tests in 2015. As you are no doubt all aware, we are in the midst of an extremely difficult financial time, and there was even talk that we should perhaps not have these awards. However, in difficult times we still need motivation, and I am a firm believer in recognising peoples' achievements. Hence we decided on a scaled-down version of the awards. Thank you very much to Fairview High School for hosting us. As a Government, we believe that a future with more jobs, less inequality, better education and greater freedom to pursue opportunity is a vision that is shared by all South Africans and must be pursued vigorously. To achieve this vision, a quality education is an essential pre-requisite. A quality education enables people to gain access to an improved quality of life, and a better chance of employment, or the chance to create employment for others. One essential of a quality education is that no child leaves school without having mastered the fundamentals of literacy and numeracy. In fact, no child should proceed to Grade 4 without having mastered basic literacy and numeracy. A quality education starts with all learners having mastered literacy and numeracy at internationally benchmarked levels, with their education having included information literacy to prepare them for the modern economy. Failure to develop each learner's capability to his or her full potential is not just a loss for the individual but a loss to our country and the economy. The fact remains that mastering literacy skills brings with it a host of social, economic, cultural and health benefits for the individual and society as a whole. Employment and a quality education go hand in hand. With an unemployment rate of almost 26% in South Africa, this is undoubtedly one of the most pressing socio-economic challenges facing us as a country. A better educated and more highly skilled workforce is the most pressing long-term priority for the economy. The Western Cape Government has implemented a number of interventions to improve the quality of education and reduce the dropout rate in our province. These include measures to improve literacy and numeracy. To achieve this, we need to ensure that we get the foundation phase right. This year, we will be piloting the new Grade R - 3 Project. The goal of this intervention is to provide structured and focused support for improved learning in the Foundation Phase in 105 schools in the Western Cape and so ensure that all Grade 3 learners read and write at the required level before the end of Grade 3. I believe that if our learners do not achieve this, it causes them to become despondent as they cannot cope with the work in the higher grades, and this ultimately leads to them dropping out of school. I am very pleased that this year we are launching the new Mathematics and Language strategies, which seek to further improve the quality of teaching and learning in all grades to ensure better learner performance and greater retention of learners in the schooling system, in line with our strategic goals. The launch of these new strategies coincides with the recent release of the WCED systemic results, which will form a baseline for assessing improvement in various areas. Thank you to Dr Beets and his team, who I know have put a lot of work into these strategies. We desperately need to increase the number of teachers able to teach Maths and languages, and the number of learners taking maths as a subject. As part of the Western Cape Government's Skills Game Changer, we have identified a shortage of artisans in the oil and gas industry, which is set to grow up the West Coast in the near future. Many of our scarce skills in South Africa require maths, and it is just plain stupid to have to import skills from other countries when we have so many unemployed people in our own. We MUST equip our children to be able to take up jobs in our economy. Otherwise they simply become a further drain on our already constrained economy, and it leads to loss of self-esteem and dignity, which in turn causes other social problems. We have over the last few years introduced many new strategies to improve outcomes in Language and Mathematics in our Province. These initiatives are work in progress and subject to ongoing review and revision. But to do this, it is essential that we have a credible testing mechanism to test the system. Without the use of credible systemic testing of learner outcomes the WCED would not be in possession of the data upon which to develop its Literacy and Numeracy Interventions. There are also other benefits from this testing, for example, increasing the accountability in the system, and enabling us to identify training gaps which need to be addressed. The testing provides an early indication in our Primary schools as well as a more regular indicator at key stages of our schooling system. Constructively used this is very valuable information. Feedback indicates that this is producing a more confident and knowledgeable teaching corps in this province, which is crucial for us to make progress. I am therefore delighted that the systemic tests conducted in 2015 ultimately show us that our interventions are working, and that the quality of teaching and learning in our schools in the Western Cape is improving. The Maths results last year were particularly pleasing, the pass rates increasing from 2014 by 3.6% in Grade 3, 7.3% in Grade 6 and 7.3% in Grade 9. Factors that have played a role include significant investment in teacher training, ongoing testing, and support by our districts. The results reflect the hard work of our teachers and the ongoing support of our districts. I would like to congratulate them all for these improvements. Whilst the improvements were pleasing, the results also highlighted the fact that there is much work to be done before our learners, across the board, demonstrate acceptable levels of language and mathematics as benchmarked internationally. I would like to congratulate the schools that are here tonight that have either performed excellently or improved on their results. This year just over 229 715 learners from 1 495 public and independent schools in the Western Cape wrote the 2015 WCED Systemic Language and Mathematics tests for Grades 3, 6 and 9. We are pleased to see that 6114 learners from 89 independent schools also participated in the tests. Independent schools were first invited to participate in the Grade 6 and 9 testing in 2010, and Grade 3 testing in 2011. The number of independent schools writing has therefore increased from 41 in 2010, 106 in 2014, and stabilised at 89 in 2015. If we continue to have the right positive attitude, work together as teams, plan suitably and implement those plans properly, we can improve language and mathematics results in this province. If we achieve this objective, we will improve the quality of the whole system, improving learner performance and retention in all grades and ultimately better outcomes in the National Senior Certificate. It is clear that the systemic testing plays a vital role in assisting us to improve our education outcomes. I will thus not countenance attempts to prevent them from taking place, and am awaiting a report at the end of this month on the few schools that did not write last year to assess further action. I would like to end off by thanking all our principals and SGB members present. We appreciate and value your leadership and management of our schools. Our educators and curriculum advisors have also done us very proud and we congratulate them for their learner's achievements. Congratulations again and thank you to all of you. The WCED presented awards to schools in the following categories: Ordinary Public Schools Category 1: Excellence in Academic Performance All schools received certificates. Category 1(a) Schools with a minimum of 30 learners writing grades 3 and 6
Schools with less than 30 learners writing grades 3 and 6
Category 1(b) Schools with a minimum of 30 learners writing Grade 9
Schools with less than 30 learners writing Grade 9
Category 1(c ) Schools with a minimum of 30 learners writing grades 3 and 6
Schools with less than 30 learners writing grades 3 and 6 ( c ) and (d )
Category 1(d) Schools with a minimum of 30 learners writing grades 3 and 6
Category 1(e) Schools with a minimum of 30 learners writing Grade 9
Schools with less than 30 learners writing Grade 9 (e ) and (f)
Excellence in Academic Performance in Mathematics: Grade 9 Schools with a minimum of 30 writing Grade 9
Category 1(g) Schools with a minimum of 30 learners writing Grade 3
Category 1(h) The WCED presented an award for excellence to one ordinary public school in this category, based on the combined average results for the Grade 6 Language and Mathematics tests.
Independent Schools Category 1(i) Schools with a minimum of 30 learners writing grades 3 and 6
Schools with less than 30 learners writing grades 3 and 6
Category 1(j) Schools with a minimum of 30 learners writing Grade 9
Schools with less than 30 learners writing Grade 9
Category 2: Improvement in Academic Performance in Grades 3, 6 and 9 All schools nominated in this category each received a certificate and R 10 000 for the purchase of learning and teaching support materials. Category 2(a) Awards for improvement were presented to 15 ordinary public schools that have shown the greatest improvement in the Grades 3 and 6 Language and Mathematics tests for the period 2013, 2014 and 2015. Improvement is measured in terms of the increase in the number of learners who achieve more than 50% in the tests during this period. The WCED presented awards in this category to 10 schools with enrolments of 600 or more learners, and five schools with enrolments of less than 600. In the first category of 600 and more learners, awards were presented to:
In the category of enrolments of less than 600, awards were presented to:
Category 2(b): The WCED presented awards for improvement to a total of 12 ordinary public schools that have shown the greatest improvement in the Grade 9 Language and Mathematics tests for the period 2013, 2014 and 2015. Awards in this category were presented to seven schools with an enrolment of 600 or more learners, and five schools with an enrolment of less than 600. In the first category of 600 and more learners, awards were presented to:
In the category of enrolments of less than 600, the following schools are nominated:
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