Gauteng Education MEC rated 3/10 for 85% pass rate, but bonuses dished out for two officials with stellar matric results

Gauteng Education MEC rated 3/10 for 85% pass rate, but bonuses dished out for two officials with stellar matric results

Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi has promised to pay performance bonuses to two district directors who attained over 90% in their regions for the Class of 2023 matric results, lashing his Education MEC Matome Chiloane for missing his target by 5%.

Lesufi was speaking at the Gauteng-leg of the matric awards ceremony, which was hosted by Microsoft at their Bryanston headquarters, where high performing learners who helped the province attain 85% pass rate were celebrated and awarded with vouchers, bursaries and laptops.

According to Lesufi’s announcement, this effectively means the district directors of Johannesburg West, Alex Ramokhoase, and Tshwane South, Andries Nkadimeng, who attained 92.55% and 90.4% respectively, would be getting performance bonuses.

They were the only two out of the 15 districts to meet the target and get bonuses.

The Gauteng Department of Education Technical Report into the results of the 2023 National Senior Certificate also showed that in the past five years, only three three districts had ever achieved above 90% pass rate, showing how exceptional the achievements were.

In 2019, the Gauteng North, Tshwane North and Tshwane South districts achieved 90.8%, 90.5% and 93.2% respectively, to help the province attain an 87.2% pass rate that year.

No district in Gauteng had clinched 90% until the two districts did in the class of 2023.

Lesufi congratulated the Free State and KZN provinces for outperforming Gauteng, but was scathing on the performance of his successor, Education MEC Chiloane.

“The competition is stiff. This must serve as a wake up call to us in Gauteng that the days of basking in our glory are over. We must engage, compete and offer alternatives to our country.

“We have done that, we just need to accept we have been defeated.

“I know MEC Chiloane disputes the fact and emphasises that we were at 84% and we are now at 85%. I duly accept that, but my performance contract with you doesn’t speak about 85%, it speaks about 90%.

“Out of the 10 points, I will only allocate 3/10. This is an indication that we must work hard and that things must happen,” he said.

After lashing Chiloane, Lesufi said he would be ensuring there were performance bonuses for districts that achieved above 90%.

“I will give all the performance bonuses with immediate effect. We must reward those who shine. This is our province.

“Those who have performed beyond 90%, I want to thank you for the bottom of our hearts because we made a commitment to reach 90%,” he said.

100% Class

The technical report also showed there were a total of 141 schools, comprising of 40 public schools, 87 independent schools and 14 schools for learners with special needs, that passed with 100% matric pass rate.

Added to that, there were 285 schools in the province, comprising of 82 independent schools, 5 special needs schools and 198 public schools that passed with matric pass rates between 90 and 99.9%.

Lesufi did not hide his unhappiness about the performance of districts and townships schools in particular, who performed below the national pass rate of 82.9%.

“I must registered my disappointment to the districts that have not performed above the national average of 82.9%.

“What pains me is that the districts that service the majority of our people are performing below 82.9%,” he said.

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