Basic Education Director-General, Mr Mathanzima Mweli, is conducting annual virtual engagements with provincial and district officials from 30 January to 14 February 2025. The first engagement took place with the North West Province on 30 January 2025. Ms Simoné Geyer, DDG for Delivery and Support, explained that the DG hosts two sets of annual engagements with provinces and districts: “The first phase of the engagements take place during the beginning of each academic year to implement programmes to improve learning outcomes across provinces. The second phase of the engagements are hosted during October, ahead of the NSC examinations”.
Mr Maropene Seshibe, Acting Head of Department, extended his appreciation to school principals and subject advisors in particular, for the improved National Senior Certificate (NSC) results, and commended the DBE for their continued support. The robust online engagement was attended by 1,300 attendees. Mr Prince Masilo facilitated the provincial presentation, with a summary on learner performance; an update on ECD; a synopsis of the Mathematics Plan for 2025; the Literacy and Language Plan to promote the Incremental Introduction of African Languages (AIAL) and Mother Tongue-based Bilingual Education (MTbBE) for implementation in 650 schools in the province; progress and challenges for the new academic year; and an update on infrastructure.
Dr Mark Chetty, Director for National Assessments, discussed learner achievement results against the backdrop of the three benchmark studies: SACMEQ V, TIMMS 2023 and Systemic Evaluation to illustrate how these international, regional and South African studies impact on the North West Province in the General Education and Training (GET) Band. The province faces substantial educational challenges, including a high percentage of Grade 3 learners performing at the emerging level in numeracy. Regarding the quality of teaching and learning, key contributing factors to underperformance in the North West include low achievement in languages and poor performance in Quintile 1-3 schools. The North West province also experiences low teacher attendance in schools compared to other provinces. A common trend is that girls are significantly outperforming boys across all three studies.
Dr Rufus Poliah, Chief Director for National Assessments and Public Examinations, presented a reflection on the results of the Class of 2024 to understand performance at the Further Education and Training (FET) Band with a question: “Where to from the 87.5%?” The national uptake of Mathematics of 35.3% compared to the 62% uptake of Mathematical Literacy, is still an area of concern. The decline in enrolments in Accounting and Economics is troublesome. The enrolments in terms of the Technology subjects is still on the low side, despite the minor increase in some of the specialisations. The increase in the number of Sign Language candidates is encouraging and needs to be maintained. The decrease in the number of progressed learners in three Provincial Education Departments (PEDs) and the increase in the remaining six needs to be investigated, in terms of the correct application of the progression criteria. In addition, there is room for Bachelor passes and distinction rates to improve.