Khayelitsha school rewarded for hard work
1 March 2024
“Joe Slovo Engineering High School has a team of united and dedicated educators who only want and wish for what is best for the children. We aim to maintain the standard of our results. We are not going back.”
So said a resolute Styhilelo Ntamo, principal of the school in Khayelitsha that dramatically improved its matric results from 37,6% in 2020 when he joined the school to 75,4% in 2022 and an impressive 87,2% last year.
The school scooped up several awards at the Western Cape 2023 National Senior Certificate Awards and Ntamo collected certificates for most improved public school, most improved technical school, 8th place in the category for schools that showed the greatest increase in the percentage of bachelor passes and fifth place in the most improved pass performance category.
Joe Slovo High School also produced the top learner in Technical Mathematics, Uwive Mqulwane.
The school has adopted a number of intervention strategies that include extra classes in the mornings, afternoons and on weekends as well as participating in the Telematics and Back on Track programmes.
Results are analysed after each task to identify problem areas and educators put emphasis on the identified topics and reinforce concepts during the afternoon and weekend classes.
Parents receive a report card for their child at parent meetings held at the start of each term. This encourages strong working relations between the parents and educators.
Each term, after the results analysis, the School Management Team engages learners in one-on-one sessions to discuss the challenges learners face and put interventions in place.
Ntamo said learners have access to social workers, psychologists, as well as motivational speakers.
During the holidays, Grade 12 learners attend school religiously. “Attendance is of utmost importance. If a learner misses any of these classes, then the parent is called to the school for an explanation because all these programmes are communicated with the parents at the beginning of the year.”
