Crestway High School in Retreat has obtained the swakest results in the Western Cape with a matric pass rate of only 35.9%.
According to the 2023 National Senior Certificate Exam Results School Performance Report, it was the only school out of 454 in the entire province that had a pass rate below 39.9 percent.
The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) says that out of 103 learners who wrote the national exam, only 37 passed, of whom only 11 obtained a bachelor’s pass.
Parents for Equal Education SA (Peesa) founder, Vanessa le Roux, says the school, Student Governing Body (SGB) and WCED should be the ones taking responsibility.
She says: “When you see a pass mark of only 35.9%... you should start looking at the school and throwing questions their way, as well as to the WCED.“So what went wrong here? If it was 30% that failed then we could look at the ‘lazy learner’ aspect but not when only 30% passed.”
WCED spokesperson, Kerry Mauchline, says the district’s head of curriculum will be meeting with the school to analyse the individual subject results.
She adds that the district director and management team will meet with all under-performing schools.
A community member, who asked not to be named, says the school can’t be held responsible.
“It is up to the child, they are given all the skills, and here they are provided with after-school classes, extramural activities and feeding schemes. The problem is there has been many issues at the school, running around and bunking during school hours.”
Education Department MEC David Mayier encouraged pupils who did not achieve their desired results to not to give up.
“We encourage all learners who did not achieve their desired marks to apply for a re-mark or re-check if they do not feel their results reflect their performance, or to write the exams in June.
More information on these options is available on the WCED website.
The Daily Voice could not reach the school’s SGB yesterday.