Education Districts in the KwaZulu-Natal Province are making inroads in terms of preparing learners for the NSC Examinations. Umkhanyakude Education District has committed itself to reach a target of 85% during the 2020 NSC Examinations. Mr Motha, who is responsible for 552 schools, shared best practice. “I rely on the strength of my team. I have over the years, developed a solid team of district officials and school principals. The district has put systems in place to support learners and Covid-19 could not disrupt such a strong system.

“More than 14,521 Grade 12 learners will be writing the NSC Examinations this year. All Grade 12 learners in 165 high schools have completed their Annual Teaching Plans. The district is currently monitoring and supporting the Grade 12 Revision Programme. We use previous question papers and additional supplementary materials that were supplied by our province, such as Mind the Gap Study Guides to prepare our learners for the final examinations. We are intensifying extra classes and weekend classes in all high schools. Lead teacher programmes and learner tutor programmes are in place in most of our high schools, especially top 80 schools.

“All schools and circuits that obtained less than the district performance are declared underperforming and have been monitored and supported regularly. Learners in Grade 12 are visited by multi-disciplinary teams for motivation and by District Transversal teams for psychosocial support, especially in dealing with anxiety related to Covid-19. The district performed at 80.60 % in 2019 and we are confident that our learners will do better this year. During this period, we have been pushing all schools towards completing curriculum coverage. We often deploy our teams to monitor progress and support schools where there is a challenge. We give special attention to all schools with more than 100 Grade 12 learners, and they are adopted by senior district officials for support.”