Cape Town - Education activists who have expressed concerns over the declining pass rate at Heathfield High School in the last three years, with the class of 2022 obtaining 61.2%, are hoping this academic year will be without any disruptions.
The school managed to obtain an 84% pass rate in 2020, which declined to 76% in 2021 and dipped again last year.
Nationally, the class of 2022 is known to have been hard hit by Covid-19 however activists believe tensions at Heathfield high school were among factors that have affected pupils.
A mediator was contracted at the school last year after on-and-off disruptions with some people calling for axed former principal Wesley Neumann to be reinstated.
The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) has however dismissed claims it failed to prioritise pupils with proper catch-up programmes to assist the Grade 12 pupils but instead focused on a legal battle as “completely, and outrageously, false.”
Education activist and former principal of South Peninsula High Brian Isaacs said the WCED should also take full responsibility for the 2022 performance.
“What should have been a dispute which could have been resolved speedily and which could have led to the least disruption at Heathfield High turned out to be WCED making hard-line decisions to show they were in control of education in the Western Cape. The authorities in the Western Cape believed that they had to punish Heathfield High severely.
Most of the people in authority now in government and education were not involved in the struggle for freedom in SA,” he said.
ANC MPL, Khalid Sayed said the pupils were the ones most negatively affected. “All our calls to the MEC and department to drop the frivolous charges against principal Neumann and to prioritise the well-being of learners fell on deaf ears.
“The WCED failed dismally to come up with a proper catch-up programme to assist the grade 12 learners to prepare for the final exams.
This is the department's own doing and it should be held accountable for it,” said Sayed.
Special Action Committee member Nadeem Hendricks added that other schools in the Southern suburbs also did not perform well.
“Educators were not trained or guided to effective teaching in extraordinary circumstances. The leadership and senior management were out of touch with the realities on the ground as their focus was not community schools.”
WCED spokesperson Bronagh Hammond said the department did all it could to separate the legal process entirely from the school and to ensure the school’s stability.
“Sadly, there have been repeated efforts by some individuals to destabilise the school environment and prevent teaching and learning from taking place. Recently, in this regard, a Grade 12 educator at the school was found guilty on two charges of misconduct, received a final written warning, and will be suspended for a month without pay.
“There was a concerted effort to try and assist the Grade 12 learners.”
With the help of our curator principals, the school has implemented numerous programmes to support the matric learners in their preparations for the NSC exams which included additional afternoon classes for matrics, weekend Maths and Science classes, and the hosting of a winter school programme.
“While these initiatives garnered support from learners, the attempts to compensate for the learning losses experienced have evidently been too late, particularly in subjects such as mathematics, where only 8 of the 45 learners passed their exam,” she said.
Hammond added that they were aware of where the remaining challenges lie and these will be addressed this year.
Cape Times