Govt intensifies efforts to improve matric results

South African matriculants received their end of year results today

Education Minister Naledi Pandor says government's strategies to improve matric results will be intensified.

She says teachers have not started teaching with the expectation of tough papers that will test high-level cognitive skills. Pandor has also criticised the national and provincial education departments for what she terms a lack of administrative efficiency.

"To illustrate this, many schools sometimes spend two terms without any text books. Teachers don't get curriculum development programmes and teachers in Grade 8 and 9 do not view their teaching as part of a skills development continuum, feeding into Grade 12 and into post-secondary education.

"The poorer schools continue to perform badly. We have unqualified teachers in some classrooms, while we have inadequate laboratory facilities and negligible development support to schools. Despite the quality improvement strategy, where funding has been made available, the affirmative action we expect is not taking place."