Education
With regard to school dropout on the West Coast:
Whether she can provide a breakdown of the dropout rates and the affected grades for each of the following years: (a) 2014, (b) 2015, (c) 2016, (d) 2017, (e) 2018 and (f) 2019?
- The WCED tracks learner enrolments at schools on the CEMIS system that is managed and maintained by the schools as learners enter and/or leave a school.
When a learner leaves a school, or has been absent for more than 10 consecutive days without any contact (policy), the school “exits” the learner on the CEMIS system and captures a reason, if such a reason is available.
These reasons include cases of death, transfer to another school in another province, transfer to a TVET college, or to a private school, inter alia, and therefore cannot be deemed as a “drop out” from the education system.
These figures also do not reflect learners “re-entering” the system. Learners that are “moving” would generally find placement in their new community. Similarly, a parent who makes a decision to exit a specific school, may enrol the child elsewhere.
Therefore, the WCED does not actively track or report on learner “dropouts” as there are multiple reasons which are not necessarily deemed as “dropping out” of the schooling system.
The WCED reports on provincial learner retention rates in the department’s Annual Performance Plan (APP). The retention rate is deemed the standard of reporting. The learner retention rates for all grades for West Coast District for the years requested in (a) to (f) above are as follows:
Year | Grade 7s retained from Grade 1 | Grade 12s retained from Grade 8 | Grade 12s retained from Grade 10 |
2014 | 72% | 50% | 68% |
2015 | 76% | 52% | 71% |
2016 | 74% | 55% | 72% |
2017 | 74% | 54% | 73% |
2018 | 78% | 56% | 69% |
2019 | 82% | 59% | 69% |
