Poor turnout at struggling Joburg school: report

Not a single learner turned up for the first day of school for 2013 at the Wavelength High School in Johannesburg, according to a report on Saturday.

The Saturday Star reported that on Thursday, the second day of the term, desperate parents began registering their children at the school.

Wavelength High School was one of seven schools that received a zero percent matric pass rate in 2012. It's sole matric learner failed the exams.

Spokesman for the Gauteng education department, Charles Phahlane said the school was registered and operational for the year.

He told the paper it was not unusual for the school to have only registered one matric pupil last year.

"This school is a statistical outlier and it would be unusual for an ordinary public school to enter one learner for matric examinations.

"But independent schools do have smaller learner numbers compared to ordinary public schools," he was quoted as saying.

He said the department was investigating the school's past performance.

Meanwhile, Katlehong residents have called for an intervention at the Mpontsheng High School after 81 out of the schools 167 matriculants passed their 2012 exams, said the Saturday Star.

Only a handful of teachers turned up for the first day of school and some pupils only arrived at 11am.

Former pupils of the school said the teachers were not to blame for the results and said teachers had tried everything.

The matric pass rate in South Africa improved in 2012, with 73.9% of grade 12s passing. This was an improvement on the 70.2% pass rate in 2011.