According to the Department of Basic Education, the 2020 matric class achieved a 76.2% pass rate which is a drop of 5.1 percentage points from the previous year. This includes Phelindaba Secondary School in Tshwane which had a difficult 2020, much like most schools in the province who saw a drop in results because of the Covid 19 pandemic.
The school had their old science lab refurbished, with the addition of the mobile lab thanks to the PPC Cement manufacturer Hercules branch.Phelindaba Secondary School is hoping the donation of a science lab will help them turn around their dismal performance in one of their major core subjects.
Deputy Principal, Mike Mongau said the school achieved a 90% matric pass rate in 2019.Last year, the school achieved a 72.95% matric pass rate in the 2020 exams, with their performance for science alone dropping to a worrying 30% average.
He added that the school battled not only with transitioning to predominately online teaching but also in getting the learners to return to school after the numerous interruptions due to the national lockdown. Before the donation of the mobile lab, the Deputy Principal said the building itself was dilapidated, floors, cabinets and equipment were in a poor state, which left them improvising often.
“We didn’t have much so all we could do to continue with teaching was improvising especially with experiments so it was a challenge and often we left unsure of the outcomes as we did not have everything This donation means a lot to the school and these learners are so excited to get started now. We can only hope that with such improvements we can get the community behind us,” said Mongau.
