The Mpumalanga education department did not issue tablets to matric pupils at 72 poor schools because of the low retrieval rate of the digital devices from pupils last year, News24 reports.
Lamulelani High School, in the Bohlabela district, which was the worst-performing in the country in the 2023 matric exams, only received the learning resource last Wednesday − just a few weeks before the final exams.
The department said the schools which had not been given devices were supplied with textbooks. News24 found that some only received the books during July, August and September after teachers had already completed the year’s syllabus.
In 2022, the department bought 63,335 tablets for Grade 12 pupils and 6,700 laptops for teachers as part of an e-learning project, which cost R547 million.
The tablets are loaded with e-textbooks, supplementary education materials and previous years’ question papers.
The department confirmed to News24 that it distributed 45,025 devices to 402 high schools this year, including to some schools only in August, because of delays in repairing them.
These revelations come amid a communiqué issued to schools on 25 September by Bohlabela’s district director, Lorraine Goba, who confirmed that about 8,000 matrics scored between 0% and 39% in most subjects in the March and June exams.
“These learners have a potential to cause a further decline of the 2024 NSC [National Senior Certificate] results,” Goba informed principals.
Professor Loyiso Jita, dean of the education faculty at the University of the Free State, said that he hoped the new Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube “could champion the drive away from a single focus on matric as a measure of both the learners’ development and/or the performance of the system”.
[Image: WOKANDAPIX from Pixabay]