Literacy and Numeracy Awards Highlight Province's Top Achievers | Western Cape Government

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Literacy and Numeracy Awards Highlight Province's Top Achievers

14 February 2012

Media Statement by Donald Grant, Minister of Education

The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) will be honouring 66 schools from across the province that have produced excellent results and those that have shown the greatest improvement in the 2011 provincial literacy and numeracy assessment tests at an awards ceremony at De Kuilen Primary School tomorrow night.

Schools will be recognised for their progress and achievement in literacy/language and numeracy/mathematics. The awards serve as an incentive for schools to continue to better their results in literacy and numeracy and also allow us to celebrate their achievements and to show just how proud we are of their successes.

Awards will be allocated in terms of identified criteria, including recognising schools in terms of their social and economic context.

The first category of awards, "Excellence in outcomes", will be honouring eight public schools (one school per district) where the combined performance at Grade 3 level in literacy/numeracy and Grade 6 level in language/mathematics in 2011 illustrates meritorious outcomes. Excellence in outcomes is measured in terms of both the pass rates and mean scores. Schools will receive a monetary incentive of R15 000 for the purchase of teaching and learning support material.

In the second and third categories, "Excellence of outcomes in literacy/language" and "Excellence of outcomes in numeracy/mathematics", eight schools in each category will be awarded for their combined performance at Grade 3 and Grade 6 level in each field. Excellence of outcomes is measured in terms of both the pass rates and mean scores. The winners in this category will also receive a monetary incentive of R15 000.

Awards will also be given to schools that do not offer either Grade 3 or Grade 6. In these two categories, awards will be given to schools where the combined performance at only the Grade 3 level in literacy and numeracy in 2011 constitutes meritorious outcomes. Similarly, there will be an award presented to one school that does not have Grade 3 for performance at the Grade 6 level. They will receive a monetary incentive of R10 000 for the purchase of teaching and learning support material.

We are extremely pleased that, for the second year running, some of our independent schools in the province have decided to take up our offer to write these tests, and we would also like to honour their top performing school. Therefore, we have added an additional category, "Overall excellence of outcomes in numeracy and literacy in Grades 3 and 6", which will be presented to one independent school in the province where the combined performance at Grades 3 and 6 level in numeracy and literacy in 2011 constitutes meritorious outcomes. This school will receive a monetary incentive of R10 000 for the purchase of teaching and learning support material.

In January, we announced that in the Grade 3 literacy and Grade 6 language tests, the tests were expanded and changed so that they are in line with international experience and best practice.

Because of the changes made, it is no longer possible to make comparisons between past literacy and language results and the most recent results.

Therefore, we are able to award improvements in numerical performance only in Grade 3 and Grade 6.

Awards will be made to eight schools in each district (where applicable) for the greatest improvement in numeracy at Grade 3 level and in numeracy at Grade 6 level over the period 2008, 2010 and 2011. Improvement is measured in terms of both pass rates and mean scores.

Awards will be allocated in terms of farm and multigrade schools, schools with an enrolment of 600 learners or more and schools with an enrolment of less than 600 learners. These schools will receive a monetary incentive of R20 000 for the purchase of teaching and learning support material.

I am excited and look forward to meeting and congratulating the principals of all our outstanding schools. Their successes in improving and sustaining literacy and numeracy outcomes must be highlighted and are examples of best practice for many of our poorer performing schools.

Media Enquiries: 

Bronagh Casey
Spokesperson for Minister Grant
Cell: 072 724 1422
Tel: 021 467 2377
E-mail: Bronagh.Casey@pgwc.gov.za