30th January 2020
In 2010 Fezile Dabi was a very average rural education district in the Free State Province of South Africa with only 48% of its learners gaining a basic matriculation school leavers pass at its under-performing schools.
In January 2020 the National Minister of Basic Education announced that Fezile Dabi was the top performing education district in South Africa in the 2019 matric exams.
91% of learners at previously under-performing schools in Fezile Dabi obtained a basic matriculation pass. More importantly, 80% of the learners who sat the exam obtained university or technical university pass. THIS IS A BIG DEAL!!
|
2010 |
2011 |
2012 |
2019 |
|
|
Percentage of learners gaining a basic matriculation (school leavers) pass |
48% |
61% |
77% |
91% |
|
Percentage of learners gaining a university or technical university entrance pass |
n/a* |
n/a* |
n/a* |
80% |
* The Department of Basic Education did not publish this data till 2015.
Fezile Dabi is a rural education district with only two large towns. The majority of its schools are situated in rural villages at least 50 km apart. And yet Fezile Dabi has, for three consecutive years out-performed education districts in Johannesburg and Cape Town with their many well-resourced public schools which enjoy a tradition of gaining excellent results!
A miracle!! How did Fezile Dabi become the top performing education district in the nation three years in a row?
In 2011/12 principals of all the under-performing schools in Fezile Dabi attended the SA Education Districts Centre of Excellence Programme which is a BCF culture change programme designed to turn every school in an education district into a centre of excellence. IT WORKS!!
BCF does not claim it was the sole contributor to the impressive gains made in Fezile Dabi but that it:
1. Provided the catalyst which kick-started the sustainable improvements at each school.
2. Empowered each principal to establish a high-performance culture which enabled every school in the district to journey towards becoming a centre of excellence.
Once a school has become a centre of excellence, or is well on its way to doing so, principals come and go but the teachers and managers keep the vibrant culture of effective teaching and effective learning alive.