The directors of education in the Hardap and //Karas regions both chose to focus on the positives in light of the regions’ damning performance in the 2014 national final exams.
//Karas is listed 12th and Hardap last out of 14 regions in the national rankings of the Grade 10 Junior Senior Certificate (JSC) exams.
Acting //Karas education director Constance Wantenaar told Nampa in an interview on Friday that the region made an improvement in the Grade 12 Nation Senior Secondary Certificate (NSSC) Higher-level exams from 12th place in 2013 to ninth place this year.
She added that there was an overall improvement of graded candidates from 84,4 per cent to 88,3 per cent and that individual schools in the region upgraded its rankings on the national school lists.
Wantenaar said that regional interventions and strategies implemented in 2013 and 2014 had started to yield positive results in both the Grade 10 and Grade 12 outcomes and that these advances from school to school would improve in the coming years.
She explained that the majority of learners received quality grades of between 18 and 22 points and that there was an improvement in subject performances.
The Hardap Region’s Mzingisi Gqwede responded: “Somebody has to be last. There are 14 regions and unfortunately this year, we dropped to the last place”.
He said the drop was largely caused by the unexpected poor performance of one school.
“Part of the problem is that there were many transfers from Grade Nine to Grade 10,” Gqwede elaborated.
He was however upbeat, saying generally the schools have done well and that stakeholders were looking forward to fixing the gaps and to continue improving education in the Hardap Region.
“One thing I am very proud of is that we came fifth nationally with our Grade 10 results,” Gqwede concluded.
-Nampa
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