By Staff Reporter
QWAQWA -MEC for Education Department Dr Tate Makgoe has announced the department intention to close 51 non-viable schools in the province.
Makgoe said this during the tabling of budget for financial year 2021/2022 of fifteen billion four hundred and seventy-four million nine hundred and forty-four thousand Rands (R15.474.944.000).
In the 2020/21 financial year, it was fifteen billion four hundred and eighty-three million nine hundred and twenty-one thousand Rands (R15.483.921.000). This is an increase of one percent.
“We will also close non-viable routes, covering 80 km that has less than 10 learners. We are expanding the Farm School Hostel Project to accommodate 21 farm learners. Currently, there are 44 hostels in the province, accommodating 6 401 farm learners. An amount of R84 million has been set aside in the 2021/22 financial year for the Farm School Hostel Project.”
Makgoe also call on parents and other stakeholders to support and embrace this intervention that will go a long way in providing quality education to farm school learners.
“Accommodating these learners in the hostels will help us tackle the problem of high level of learner absenteeism, late coming and the dropout rate in our farm schools. We will also be taking these learners from unreliable and unroadworthy vehicles, bad roads and provide them with quality education they deserve. They will have added benefit of access to running water, electricity, three meals a day and e-learning facilities Available evidence demonstrates that learners who are accommodated in these hostels complete their matric.”
He said many of the challenges of farm and rural schools can be resolved through the Integrated Rural Education Strategy (IRES), which inter alia aim to close small and non-viable schools with less than 50 learners and where one teacher teaches all subjects across all grades (Multigrade teaching).
Highlighting success attained through their intervention Makgoe said of all Hostel School Project grade 12 learners who wrote NSC examinations over the past five years (2016-2020), 88.1% passed and 36.2% achieved bachelor passes.
