Schools will be declared as underperforming from this year on if their pass percentage in the matric exams dips below 70% and they produce fewer than 30% bachelor and 25% diploma passes.
Previously, institutions that obtained a pass percentage of below 65% and less than 30% bachelor and diploma passes combined were regarded as underperformers.
The new, more stringent criteria are contained in a circular dated April 18 which was signed off by the director-general of the department of basic education, Mathanzima Mweli.
The document says “the management of underperformance in schools, as stipulated in sections 16A and 58B of the South African Schools Act, is at the core of the sector’s efforts of ensuring that all learners receive quality education, irrespective of their geographical location”.
Mweli indicated that a 2017 circular, which he was now withdrawing, gave them “valuable insights from provincial best practice” during the five years of its implementation.
“It is now time to use these insights to further improve performance in the sector.”
He said the new circular sets out the criteria and processes that must be followed in the identification, management and support of underperforming schools.
The circular stated that a school shall be deemed to be “chronically underperforming” if it underperforms for three consecutive years.
Mweli stated that underperformance could not be eliminated by providing support only and that “appropriate consequence management processes may need to be applied to deal with underperformance, where applicable”.
He said that strategies to improve learning outcomes in a province, district or circuit must include “the creative utilisation of local top-performing schools”.
What this could mean is that the school is placed on probation for three years where you place the principal immediately on a redeployment list and get a new principal to drive the change.
— Prof Loyiso Jita
According to the circular, the provincial education MECs must on or before March 31 each year submit a report to basic education minister Angie Motshekga on the actions taken by their provincial heads to manage and support underperforming schools.
Reacting to the new yardstick, Prof Loyiso Jita, dean of the education faculty at the University of the Free State, said “more radical consequence management should be considered for schools that consistently underperform”.
“What this could mean is that the school is placed on probation for three years, where you place the principal immediately on a redeployment list and get a new principal to drive the change.”
He proposed that the new principal be given powers, “through a transparent process to identify teachers who should be redeployed based on consistent non-performance”.
“The identified teachers are placed on a redeployment list. They have to apply for existing vacancies and compete for available positions elsewhere in the system.”
He said that teachers and principals who are not absorbed by other schools in six to 12 months “should be declared redundant and exit the system”.
Jita said that while the idea of using end of one-year assessment results as a proxy to judge the overall health of a school may be problematic, “the data is still useful to give us pointers about the performance of a school”.
“The road to excellence starts with setting high standards and expectations. I commend the department for raising expectations incrementally and being sensitive to contexts within which schools function.”
Mary Metcalfe, professor of practice at the University of Johannesburg (UJ), said the new requirements “appear to be a tightening of expectations and of standards of performance, which is good and necessary”.
“It would align with the increased performance of secondary schools in the NSC [National Senior Certificate] and fewer schools performing badly. So this provides a more focused approach to schools, requesting them to perform [better].”
Prof Elbie Henning, from UJ’s Soweto campus, said: “How about noting that some schools need assistance in teaching, management and, dare I say, 'care' for the young people in their schools and for the teachers?
How about noting that some schools need assistance in teaching, management and, dare I say, 'care' for the young people in their schools and for the teachers?
— Prof Elbie Henning
“The discourse on management, efficiency and performance does not fully capture what it means when a school is struggling.”
She said schools are places of support, help and care to develop citizens, adding: “The discourse on underperformance in itself is alarming. Once an ‘underperforming’ school has been identified, what then? What interventions come with the judgment?”
Prof Labby Ramrathan from the University of KwaZulu-Natal said “it makes no sense to add more criteria to determine functionality of schools when the system as a whole requires serious intervention for quality education”.
“Class size, lack of adequate teaching and learning resources and lack of interest of learners to learn compromises quality education.
“The current system is struggling to cope with school interventions. The additional criteria merely would give lip service to the intent of having functional schools.”
But basic education department spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said the sector has stabilised in terms of performance standards of schools in townships and towns.
“There are no more excuses for schools to hide behind Covid-19 for poor performance. The only main identified cause of poor performance throughout the country is lack of effective management and leadership.”
Mhlanga said the increased pass percentage was aimed at ensuring that proper management systems are put in place to create a conducive environment for improved performance.
“The idea is to motivate those schools to do more as no school management team enjoys the attention and pressure brought by the label of being a poorly performing school.
“The principal, teachers, governing bodies and learners of such schools work harder to move out of the underperformance stigma.”
He said that the expected performance is “incremental” as it takes into account the conditions in which poorly performing schools find themselves.
“It is based on the analysis that should certain conditions be addressed, the school can perform at a particular level.”
Mhlanga said that a 70% pass “is not the best of the department’s expectations because it means out of 100 learners, 30 of them would fail”.
“It is the minimum under such conditions that we expect the least-resourced school to deliver.”
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.