Johannesburg - More schools have joined the ranks of public schools with no learners passing matric.
Mathanzima Mweli, the director-general of the Department of Basic Education, announced that schools with 0% passes increased from 12 in 2018 to 16 in the 2019 matric results.
Speaking at the 2019 matric results release ceremony, Mweli described the increase as a "sad story".
Schools recording no passes seem to be a permanent feature in South Africa.
In 2016, there were 18 schools that obtained a 0% pass rate and in 2017, there were nine schools. But the 0% pass schools were not the only shame of the basic education system.
Scores of schools have as few as 20% of their matric learners passing.
Mweli said the department has a radical plan to improve performance in schools with poor performance.
"Some of us are going to live in those schools that are not performing to make sure that they are performing," said Mweli.
Publicly available evidence showed that all poorly performing schools were badly resourced.
These schools had low learner numbers and therefore insufficient teachers.
The Star reported previously that almost all schools that performed badly in the 2018 matric results had low learner numbers.
The 12 schools that achieved 0% had fewer matrics sitting in exams.
Because of low learner population, the affected schools had fewer teachers as the department uses a model that allocates teachers based on the number of learners at a school.
Unions have decried the model for years.
None of the 0% schools in 2018, three in Limpopo and nine in KwaZulu-Natal, had more than 20 learners sitting for exams for the 2019 final exams.
Fewer learner numbers was also a common feature among schools achieving under 20% and lower in 2018. These included Mgwempisi Combined in KwaZulu-Natal, which obtained 20% out of 25 that wrote.
Unions blamed the model, saying it excluded learners in small, rural schools from attaining quality education.
Mugwena Maluleke of the SA Democratic Teachers' Union (Sadtu) said: “You have a situation where schools qualify for a teacher-learner ratio of 1:35. With learners that are 10 or 20 in a school, many do not fall in that category.
“You find that learners in those schools are taught by one or two teachers for all subjects."
At the time, the department said it had a plan to address the crisis.
“We’ve been closing them down. We’ve been rationalising and merging them,” spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said.
He cited the construction of public boarding schools in Mpumalanga as one of the interventions.
“When a school is small it might have just three teachers. You can’t give them more because one teacher could be teaching two learners in a classroom.
“You can’t give each learner their own teacher. Rationalisation and merging has to help us address this issue,” Mhlanga said.
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