KNYSNA NEWS - Congratulations to the Class of 2020 for the great resilience shown during the year that will go down in history as one of the toughest. On 22 February 2020, 

The National Minister of Basic education released the 2020 Grade 12 results, revealing a national pass rate of 76.6%, a drop of 5.1 percentage points compared to the 2019 matric pass rate (81.3%). 

The Western Cape achieved a 79.9% pass rate ranking number three in the country.

The Knysna Initiative for Learning and Teaching (KILT) supports 17 government schools in Knysna, four of which are high schools: Concordia High School, Knysna Secondary School, Knysna High School and Percy Mdala High School. 

The four schools had a total of 518 learners who sat for their matric in 2020 – 396 passed with 76 distinctions. 178 learners achieved Bachelor Degree Pass, 137 achieved a Diploma pass and 72 obtained a Matric leavers certificate.

This is an 81% pass rate for the four schools, which is only 3% lower than the 2019 results (84%) and still 5% higher than the 2018 results (77%). 

Concordia High School achieved 73%; Knysna Secondary School 78%; Knysna High School 96%; and Percy Mdala High School achieved 82%. 

Noteworthy is the fact that Knysna High School and Percy Mdala High School students, despite COVID-19, achieved markedly more bachelor’s passes than in 2019. Knysna High School’s bachelors passes went up from 69% to 74% (5% increase); and Percy Mdala’s bachelor’s passes went up from 31% to 40% (9% increase).

The lockdown forced schools to close for extended periods of time, depriving the learners of face to face teaching and learning. This meant that learning and teaching had to move from the school to the home environment. Teachers soon responded to this shift in methodology by sending tasks to learners and sharing the work that was developed by the Western Cape Education Department via their WhatsApp class groups.

Unfortunately, some learners were not reached, as a result of lack of devices and especially data. The requirement for data also limited the quantity and quality of the work that the teachers could send. 

In response to these challenges, KILT supported the schools in establishing and maintaining a learning environment for learners outside the physical school grounds by providing data to all the Grade 12 learners in the four high schools in Knysna. 

Data (1 GB WhatsApp data) was provided for three months to 498 learners. Of the learners in Concordia High School, Knysna Secondary School and Percy Mdala High School, 59 who had no access to their own learning devices received, from KILT, devices that have a wide variety of applications, in addition to functioning like cell phones.

“Given all the challenges experienced by the learners in the 2020 academic year, we are proud of the results that have been achieved. 2020 was a year of great uncertainty for our learners; it is remarkable that they were able to attain these results,” said Sandy Ueckermann, Managing Director at KILT.

Tamar Fourie, an 18-year-old learner from Knysna Secondary School, achieved five distinctions and plans to study accounting at Stellenbosch University. She achieved 92% for Accounting, 84% for Life Sciences, 87% for English, 87% for Life Orientation and 85% for Afrikaans.

“I am happy with my results and want to thank KILT for their assistance, the extra lessons they provided have definitely contributed to my results. Even when we could not go to school, we continued with online extra lessons, helping us to stay up to date with our work. It was great to know that there is someone who cares. I want to tell the class of 2021 to focus on their academics and know that they can dream big and work hard towards achieving those dreams,” she said.

Nationally, more than 50% of learners drop out of school before Grade 12, while around 80% of Grade 4 learners cannot read with understanding. Disengagement of learners at an increasingly early age is at an all-time high. 

A poor education excludes young people from opportunities, impacting negatively on their potential, their ability to earn a livelihood and their sense of self-worth. These deficits often persist over generations, with dire long-term consequences for the country’s economic growth and inclusive future.

“The Auditor General of South Africa released the unemployed stats revealing the highest unemployment rate at 32.5% – the highest we have experienced as a country since 2008. This speaks directly to the importance of equipping young people with skills that will prepare them for the future world of work. South Africa’s basic education holds the key to the well-being of our children, the health of our economy and the prosperity of our nation. Yet our children will graduate into a future that – with rapid technological innovation – we are hardly able to predict,” said Ms Marcus, Non-Executive Director at KILT

The Class of 2020 can be particularly proud of their achievements. May their futures hold the opportunities they were deprived of in their final school year.

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