Pretoria - The Gauteng Department of Education is inviting all Grade 12 learners in underperforming schools to attend the provincial winter matric classes to help improve their marks and their chances of passing matric.
The department announced that the winter school matric programme will start from 2 - 5 July and 9 - 13 July 2012 to prepare learners for the exams. There are only 34 teaching days left before the examinations start in October.
The classes are part of the Secondary School Improvement Programme (SSIP), which offers extra classes to schools that had a less than 80% pass rate in the 2011 matric exams.
"The programme has been successful in the past months, resulting in learners improving their marks in the exams. It focuses on those topics that learners normally struggle with in an exam," said department spokesperson Charles Phahlane.
The programme focuses on subjects including Maths, Maths Literacy, Life Sciences, Accounting, Geography, History, Physical Science, Business Studies, and English First Additional Language.
Expert tutors with a proven track record of good results in their schools are selected to participate in the programme.
Special monitoring teams have been deployed by the department to ensure that the programme runs effectively and that quality teaching and learning happens.
Learners also receive free lunch and are provided with transport assistance in some areas.
The department has also requested parents to ensure that learners attend these classes for the eight days during the school holidays.
Learners are encouraged to establish study groups of four to five friends so that they can work through the material in preparation for the final examination.
Similar classes will also be run during the September holidays after the trial examinations, as well as matric preparation camps in October.
