60 primary schools in Western Cape receive awards

By Tina George
23 May 2008

On Thursday evening 60 primary schools across the Western Cape were acknowledged and awarded for meritorious achievement in Literacy and Numeracy by the Western Education Department.

In October and November 2007, the WCED assessed the literacy and numeracy skills of 71,874 Grade 6 learners from 1,034 schools in the province.

The WCED has decided to acknowledge these schools for the first time in 2008 by presenting awards for special achievement in either literacy or numeracy, or in both.

“We believe that we must acknowledge excellence across the system and not just in matric. Primary school lays the foundation for good matric results and therefore we thought it was appropriate that we highlight those schools with best practices of how they have been innovative in improving the numeracy and literacy skills in schools,” says WCED spokesperson, Gert Witbooi.

According to Witbooi, the department presented awards according to criteria based on excellent and progressively consistent performance in Grade 6 tests from 2003 to 2007.

“Education departments classify schools in five categories called quintiles, according to poverty rankings. The poorest schools are in quintile one and the least poor in quintile five.”

He added that the awards also recognised the achievement of schools operating in particular social and economic contexts, according to the quintile in which they were classified.