Nelspruit - Over the next five years, the Mpumalanga government will focus its energies on overhauling the provincial education system in order to improve the quality of learning and teaching.
Delivering his State of the Province Address on Friday, Mpumalanga Premier David Mabuza acknowledged the continuous improvement in Grade 12 exams, but voiced concerns regarding the performance of provincial learners in numeracy, literacy and physical science - which fall way below nationally benchmarked performance.
In 2011, Mpumalanga recorded the biggest improvement amongst all provinces with a 64.8% matric pass rate, up from 56.8% in 2010.
"The Annual National Assessment indicated that overall learner performance in numeracy and literacy was poor. This is an area of our work that is receiving urgent attention as it continues to impact negatively on our mathematics and science output in Grade 12 results.
"As a province, we are aware that if we are to address the challenge of scarce skills and critical skills in the next 10 years, learner performance in mathematics and science has to improve dramatically over the next three years," he said.
He added that particular attention would be paid to improving school governance and management to ensure that schools created enabling environments for better performance by learners and educators.
This will include, amongst others, the training of school principals on issues of school leadership and governance.
Focus, Mabuza said, would also be on improving overall learner performance across all grades, with specific emphasis on numeracy, literacy as well as early childhood development.
"To improve performance, we will focus on introducing rigorous tools to track and monitor performance of schools. We will conduct curriculum coverage assessments by ensuring that circuit managers visit schools regularly and conduct assessment on the quarterly performance of schools."
In previous years, the provincial Department of Education had been receiving qualified audits, however, a proud Mabuza said the province had turned the corner and the education system was stabilising.
"For the first time in many years, the Department of Education has received an unqualified audit opinion from the Auditor General, thereby attesting to sustained improvements in financial management and governance.
"The delivery of learner support material has improved, ensuring that all schools receive their learner support material in time," Mabuza said, adding that the province had set a target to increase the Grade 12 pass rate to 74.8% and increase maths and science passes.
