Gauteng MEC for Education, Matome Chiloane, along with his colleagues in the executive committee, visited schools as part of the 2025 back-to-school programme, an initiative to ensure that learning institutions are prepared for the year ahead. Chiloane visited the revamped and state-of-the-art Braamfischerville Primary School, in Soweto.
“We are officially here to receive a new school from the Department of Infrastructure Development and hand it over to the community and school leadership. It is a beautiful school, with beautiful infrastructure; everything works. We have given kids gadgets, we have got smart classrooms. The school has wi-fi, so it is an advanced school,” he said.
The education department intends to build more schools with modern infrastructure.
Chiloane highlighted that the province’s sustained performance confirms the fact that the Gauteng education system is stable and resilient. The Class of 2024 achieved a pass rate 88,41%, the best performance since 1995 with a 3% improvement over the 2023 results.
“Gauteng is so diverse and complex, it is the only province where learners are offered all the 12 official languages of our country. Furthermore, we offer at least 10 non-official languages, making our basic education system a global player for development. This is a system that is benefitting from careful planning, direct attention and targeted interventions, despite it being under pressure.
“This performance must be celebrated,” Chiloane said.
He highlighted the fact that the Class of 2024 went through their high school years in the shadow of the devastating Covid-19 pandemic, which changed life from what it was before 2020.
“The matric class of 2024 has faced significant disruptions over the last three years, with more than half of teaching time lost in the Grade 8 and Grade 9 years due to the pandemic.”
Chiloane also said the matric class of 2024 was confronted with an unprecedented crisis and lost more time in their Grade 8 and Grade 9 school years, impacting on their foundational knowledge and skills.
“We are therefore seeing the success of the efforts by the provincial department, schools, learners and their parents in compensating for the detrimental effect of lost teaching time, especially on those subjects that are time-intensive.
“The Class of 2024 began their Grade 12 year with high expectations. These Grade 12 learners who, in addition to the anxiety of the matric year, had to contend with the impact of the pandemic and the added stress and uncertainty it brought since 2020,” Chiloane reflected.
“Despite the negative impact of Covid-19 on teaching and learning, innovative measures have been developed and used to ensure the readiness of the Class of 2024. While significant efforts have been made to recover the academic year and provide extraordinary support to the learners, the total impact of the abnormal educational context remains an unknown and therefore a concern,” he said.
Chiloane said he remained convinced that the department is on the right track and that it can do much better.
“The year 2024 marked an increased number of candidates that enrolled to sit for the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations. What is more important, perhaps, than the 88,41% pass rate for 2024, are the detailed indicators showing the increasing quality of the teaching and learning in our schools in the province.
“It is the details of the 2024 results which show that the positive trends of the last eight years continue,” he said.
Chiloane said all children in Gauteng have been placed for the 2025 academic year.
The only issue was with parents who disputed where their children were been placed. At least 325 000 children had been offered spaces, and 14 000 late applications are still pending. He assured parents that school placements would be dealt with overtime, adding that learners would receive quality education regardless of where they are placed. “The best learner is from a township school, which shows that these schools irrespective of where they are, we do invest, we provide support for the learners to succeed. Parents should trust us in that respect,” he said.
Premier Panyaza Lesufi spent time at the best performing school in the province, the Raymond Mhlaba School of Specialisation in Roodepoort motivating learners to strive for excellence. The premier spoke against societal ills such as substance abuse.
He congratulated the teachers as well as the Johannesburg West District for their hard work and the good quality education they continue to provide for young people.
