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EDWIN NAIDU
A GROUND-BREAKING Secondary School Improvement Programme (SSIP) to help matric learners improve their performance is starting to reap dividends in Gauteng, according to Vincent Zulu, the Senior Manager for Learner Support at the Sci- Bono Discovery Centre in Newtown, Johannesburg.
“What began as a project reaching 275 under-performing schools in 2010 is now benefitting over 440 schools throughout Gauteng, impacting about 101 715 learners,” said Zulu, emphasising that providing expert tuition from the best teachers was starting to pay off.
He said that since 2012, the Gauteng Province had ranked in the top two provinces annually when matric results are announced, with a rise in performance, particularly among learners in townships whose parents could not afford to send their children for extra lessons.
Sci-Bono manages various supplementary tuition programmes for the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE), including SSIP through a Saturday Programme. A meal is provided for attendees, holiday classes during residential and walk-in camps and broadcasting.
In the past five years, the SSIP programme has seen a tremendous increase in the number of Grade 12 learners participating.
The numbers have grown substantially from 67 063 learners in 2018 to 101 715 in 2022 at 309 sites throughout Gauteng.
Under former Gauteng MEC for Education Barbara Creecy, now the Minister of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries, the Gauteng Department of Education reviewed the 2010 matric results and launched the SSIP to change the narrative.
The department looked at why learners failed in Grade 12 and held additional classes on Saturdays for Grade 12 learners struggling in gateway subjects.
Another essential element of SSIP was a support programme for Grade 10 and 11 learners, who also participated in a programme during the June holidays.
The programme focused on Mathematics and Physical Science.
Principals were encouraged to ensure their learners participated in these lessons, with the former MEC demanding 100% attendance.
The SSIP requires that principals rigorously manage their school’s participation in the programme.
Each principal is responsible for ensuring that every learner and each selected teacher participate, and that appropriate action is taken where attendance is less than 100 percent.
And the results, according to Zulu, were evident.
Although an assessment study was still underway to quantify the progress made through SSIP, improved performance was already noticeable.
Since 2012 Gauteng Province has obtained a pass rate of no less than 80 percent, while the number of bachelor’s passes has been at 40 percent for the past three (3) years.
In January 2022, former MEC for Education Panyaza Lesufi said SSIP targeted over 65 734 grade 12 learners in 436 priority schools from January that year. The SSIP offers extra classes on weekday mornings and afternoons, on Saturdays and through study camps in some years.
Over the past years, classes were also extended to Sundays to make up for lost time due to the Covid-19 lockdown.
“More than 78,7% of SSIP learners passed [in 2021] compared to 78,5% of learners in 2019,” said Lesufi, adding that 79 SSIP schools achieved above 90% pass rate.
Four SSIP schools gained 100%.
“The SSIP programme once again proved its value,” Lesufi said.
He noted that the sustained improvement in results over the last four years showed that the SSIP system improved teaching and learning in the prioritised schools.
According to Zulu, the SSIP programme is based on a centralised and standardised approach to managing and delivering additional tuition. It seeks to establish existing best practices in and out of the province and to ensure that these are replicated consistently across all the schools in the programme.
The SSIP programme uses a transversal management approach that relies on all the stakeholders for input and depends on all stakeholders to achieve success.
This programme runs parallel to the regular school programme.
According to the agreed-upon GDE Work Schedule, what is taught during the week is consolidated during what is considered ‘the sixth school day’.
The programme focuses on tackling examination questions and achieving maximum results in critical areas of the curriculum.
There is also a strong focus on homework to support the curriculum being dealt with weekly in the classroom.
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