Lerato Mailoane
To mark the first day of the 2025 academic year, Gauteng Premier, Panyaza Lesufi visited two of the province’s best performing schools in the Johannesburg West District.
The 15th January 2025 marked the start of the academic year, Premier Lesufi’s first stop was at Raymond Mhlaba School of Specialisation, located in a Gauteng Township, in the south of Johannesburg. The school has consistently achieved between 95% and 100% percent pass rate since 2012.
The premier said against the odds of poverty‚ the no-fee paying school has maintained a great track record.
The Premier reminded the learners of the magnitude of the man the school is named after.
“Raymond Mhlaba was a remarkable man who spent almost 27 years in jail so that all South Africans can have a free and fair education. Your school has made history, making the Johannesburg West District the best district in the country, leading with a 98% matric pass rate.”
He also thanked the educators for their hard work and commitment to providing quality education resulting in the outstanding performance.
The Chief Education Specialist in the Johannesburg West District, Jenny Naidoo said one of their strategies included an early start of the academic year to ensure that there is additional hours. This, she said, was done because the hours allocated in the policy are not sufficient for learners to have a deeper understanding of the content.
“We ensured the syllabus was completed by June, we ensured there was a deep revision programme in place, a consolidation programme as well as an enhanced examination programme.
“Our learners were exam fit and exam ready before the prelim examinations. When the prelim exam came about it was a test. So, we knew exactly our gaps and how to address them. This, combined with the time we allocate to the content and the understanding process, plus the excellent relationship with our schools is a winning formula.”
Naidoo also praised the commitment by principals who she said are always just a phone call away and no task is big enough for them.
“They always accede to requests and the relationship between the district and schools is something we pride ourselves on, because collectively we can.”
Raymond Mhlaba’s principal Angie Mokiti said she is pleased the matric pass rate showed that learners displayed remarkable resilience and determination, striving to excel and make their school proud.
“We really appreciate the award as a school, we had our first cohort of matriculants in 2012, where we said we are not going to let any learner fail. We had forty-one learners and all of them passed, and we got a 100% matric pass.
“In 2013, we continued and implemented the same strategy we did in the previous year and in 2013 we also got 100% again. In 2014, we tried our best, but we had a slight drop coming in at 98%. Then in 2015, we also tried our best, but two learners failed and we got a 98% pass again.”
Principal Mokiti said in 2016 the school was back at 100% and then the Premier visited school where he awarded ten bursaries to learners, five of which are currently teaching at the school as part of the alumni. In 2023, we got a 100% pass and in 2024 we also got 100%.
“The school has been excelling since 2012 now we have over ten years of academic excellence, so we really appreciate the award that was given to us and teachers are happy and motivated to excel more this year,” said Principal Mokiti.
The Premier’s second stop was Lufhereng Secondary School which is also a no-fee paying school that is housed in mobile classrooms. The school is ranked the best performing school in Gauteng.
The school achieved an outstanding 100% matric pass rate for the class of 2024, with an impressive 97% of learners earning bachelor passes.
The accomplishment of both these schools’ challenges perceptions of under-resourced schools and underscores the potential for academic excellence regardless of financial constraints which serves as an inspiration for schools across the country.
SOURCED FROM THE GPG WEBSITE.
