Comparing public schools to private like comparing Toyota with Rolls Royce – Angie

Angie Motshekga. Picture: Sapa

Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga acknowledges that public schools cannot be compared to private schools.

Speaking after the release of the yearly national assessment results yesterday, she said public schools were overcrowded and less privileged, the Cape Times reported today.

“You cannot compare bananas to apples, a Rolls Royce with a Toyota,” she told the newspaper.

The yearly national assessment is a testing programme which requires all schools to conduct the same, grade-specific language and maths tests for Grades one to six and Grade nine.

More than seven million pupils wrote the tests in September, revealing low levels of literacy and maths.

The maths performance of Grade 9 pupils is cause for concern, Motshekga said.

“In Grade 9 mathematics, the average performance is 13%. Provincial performance ranges between nine percent and 17%,” she said.

Sapa