KZN reaches out to matrics

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Durban - The KwaZulu-Natal Education Department will distribute more study guides in a bid to assist matric learners prepare for their final exams, following the disruptions caused by the public servants' strike.

"The department will continue in earnest to make this material available more especially during this period following the strike action," said spokesperson Mbali Thusi.

The Education Department bought 150 000 copies of the MATRIC Q&A supplement that contains exemplar question papers for Grade 12 learners.

The provincial Education Ministry also revised their improvement strategy, which resulted in the matric pass rate jumping to 61 percent from 57 percent in 2009, into a 10 Point Plan.

Among these 10 key activities, is the continuous supply of the supplementary materials in the form of study guides and Learning Channel DVDs.

During 2009 and June 2010 the study aids for various subjects including Geography, Economics, Tourism and English creative writing were delivered to the schools.

But according to the department, some districts have not yet released these DVDs to schools due to industrial action disturbances.

By the end of September, the department will also deliver previous examination question papers in all the 13 subjects studied by majority of the learners.

Principals of the schools, who have not yet received these critical question papers, have been urged to contact the examination section in their district offices.

Thusi said the five Crack Teams that were formed in August, to ascertain the state of readiness of the underperforming schools, will resume their duties as the strike has been suspended.

The Crack Teams will check the content coverage in each subject and confirm that through learners written work and learners assessment tasks.

They will also monitor the usage of critical resources supplied to the schools.
So far, the Crack Teams have visited about 400 schools supporting the Grade 12 learners.

In addition, the department has formed a partnership with SABC Radio to broadcast revision lessons on all the subjects.

These lessons will be broadcast through Radio Ukhozi and Lotus FM until the Grade 12 examinations come to an end in November 2010.