The Gauteng Provincial Government will convene the Soweto community and their prominent members on 2 April 2011 to address ongoing instability and underperfomance in Soweto schools.
The idea of the Soweto Education Summit was first mooted by Premier Nomvula Mokonyane in her State of the Province Address in February 2011. “With Soweto 's rich history, we cannot allow it to lag behind in terms of the culture of learning and teaching. The Education of the African child must be everybody's business and concern,” said Premier Mokonyane.
Since then, the Gauteng Department of Education has consulted with a wide range of stakeholders including the SACC, the BMF, SADTU, NAPTOSA, NASGB, NAPSG, COSAS, RCLs, school governing bodies and parents. In all forums stakeholders have agreed that such an intervention is long overdue and pledged their support for a co-ordinated community initiative to rescue education in Soweto .
The department expect the summit to address topics such as improving classroom teaching and learner performance; how to bring back a climate of discipline, safety and social cohesion in Soweto schools; ways of improving school governance and management and ensuring a political climate that fosters a spirit of learning and teaching.
In the spirit of the 1980s era, former members of the National Education Coordinating Committee and prominent leaders from Soweto have been called to assist in protecting the education of the African child in the area.
The summit will be held against the backdrop of frequent disruption to learning and teaching in the township, the migration of several thousand learners out of schools in the area to other areas in the province and widespread problems with governance, infrastructure, discipline, and safety.
The consequences are reflected in the academic performance of schools in Soweto. The average matric pass rate of Soweto secondary schools was 63% in 2010, compared to a provincial average of 79%. In 2009, it was 58% compared to a provincial average of 72%.
Soweto has by far the highest number of underperforming schools at 60 compared to other townships such as Sharpeville, Katlehong, Tembisa, Mamelodi, Soshanguve, Daveyton and Evaton that have an average of 10 underperforming schools.
Source: Gauteng Department of Education
