Pretoria - Deputy Minister of Health Dr Gwen Ramokgopa has urged teachers at schools in Atteridgeville who have a history of poor Maths and Science marks not to give up and pledged government's support to assist them achieve a successful year.
Ramokgopa visited Phathudi Secondary School on Tuesday ahead of schools in inland provinces re-opening on Wednesday for the 2012 school year.
The visit was aimed at assessing the school's readiness for the new academic year and its performance in last year's matric exams.
The school was among those that performed poorly in the 2011 matric exams - it achieved a 36.6 percent pass rate.
While only 15 percent of the learners passed Maths and Science, they performed well in other subjects; more than 80 percent passed English, Economics, Electrical Technology, Civil Technology and Languages.
Ramokgopa, who was at the school as a Member of Parliament representing the Atteridgeville Parliamentary Constituency Office, stressed the need to focus more on Grade 8 and 9 learners, noting that by the time learners reached Grade 12, it was too late for interventions and learners often struggle in higher learning institutions.
"We will adopt the school and work with it throughout the year... their problem is unique because they are doing well in other subjects. We will bring experts and facilitators to come on board because there is a need to go deeper into the subjects," Ramokgopa said.
As part of the intervention, they will also look at Grades 3, 6 and 9 as it was evident that the groundwork was also lacking there.
"We will journey with them to resolve this dark spot. It won't be an overnight thing, but we will do diagnosis and come up with a plan to ensure that the school also celebrates its achievement in matric exams like other schools."
School Principal Mike Masango and school teachers thanked Ramokgopa for not judging or blaming them for the poor performance but willingness to support the school.
Masango said the low marks in Maths and Science were due to the fact that most learners did Maths instead of Maths Literacy.
"It's very demoralising when the matric results come out and you find that your school underperformed, but it's encouraging to hear the officials committing themselves to assist us.
"Hopefully this year's results will improve to 70 percent. We are ready to start the academic year, come tomorrow," said Masango.
