MEC confident in 2016 turnaround plan

KZN Education MEC Peggy Nkonyeni is convinced that the turnaround plan for matric will deliver the desired results.

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Durban - KwaZulu-Natal Education MEC Peggy Nkonyeni is convinced that the turnaround plan for matric will deliver the desired results because it is a product of contribution from several stakeholders.

“I am therefore confident that the 2016 plan has a strong foundation, in the sense that it is the work of a collective,” Nkonyeni told lawmakers on Friday.

She made this statement when she tabled the department’s budget for the 2016-17 financial year.

Nkonyeni said the turnaround plan, which is called the provincial improvement plan (PIP), did not only focus on Grade 12 results, but also focused on other grades.

An amount of R50 million was allocated for the plan’s implementation.

PIP hopes to improve the overall KZN matric pass rate by 10%, increase the number of passes in “gateway” subjects, do away with 0 to 30% pass rate schools, and also improve the quality of bachelor passes.

Nkonyeni also said support was in place for the 24 459 pupils who had been progressed in the 12 districts.

This included special camps and providing the progressed pupils with resources, such as past examination papers and revision packs.

Nkonyeni also said her department had allocated R5m towards the implementation of the soon-to-be introduced three-stream curriculum.

“An additional R40m has been set aside to deal with a variety of interventions that may be required throughout the education system.”

She also said teacher shortages continued to be one of the challenges experienced by the department.

“This is evidenced by the high number of resignations in the past academic year.”

Nkonyeni said R32m had been set aside to recruit mathematics, science, technology and accounting pupils to consider teaching as a career in 2017.

The MEC added that R5 million had also been allocated to support schools and pupils who were studying agricultural science.

Daily News