2019 Systemic Test results show Western Cape Education strategies are working
30 January 2020
Schools serving learners in the poorest areas of the Western Cape have increased their results in Language and Mathematics across all grades tested.
In a statement to announce the results, Western Cape Education Minister Debbie Schäfer said the results of the 2019 Systemic Tests show that the provincial education system continues in general to improve year-on-year, despite immense challenges.
Schäfer said the standout improvements in Quintile 1-3 results demonstrate that the Department’s efforts to close the inequality gap in education are bearing fruit.
In Quintile 1 schools, both Mathematics and Language results increased across all grades tested, a wonderful result for schools that face many challenges. In Mathematics, both Grade 3 and Grade 6 learners increased their pass rates by 3 percentage points or more between 2018 and 2019. The increase of 5.4 percentage points in the Grade 6 language pass rate between 2018 and 2019 is especially noteworthy.
In Quintile 2 schools, language pass rates for Grade 3 and 6 have more than doubled since 2011, and in Grade 9 a further 2.1 percentage point increase from 2018 to 2019 was achieved. Mathematics pass rates have also increased substantially since 2011, including a truly excellent 30.7 percentage point increase for Grade 6 learners.
Quintile 3 schools have worked hard to increase their pass rates for language in Grade 6 by 1.3 percentage points, and Grade 9 by 1.1 percentage points, from 2018 scores.
The full statement is available here.